Foundation
With only 3 channels on the lone family TV and my dad being firmly in charge of which channel it was tuned to, my choice during the winter months, as a kid, was to watch whatever my dad wanted to watch or go to my room and read a book. I read a lot of books as a kid.
One of my favorites (but not my most favorite because that is the Lord of the Rings), was the Foundation Series of books by Isaac Asimov. A rough summary of the book series is that a mathematician, Hari Sheldon, creates this new science called psychohistory. This projection model produces a highly accurate prediction for large groups of people (before you scoff, our weather models today are predicting a 90% chance of 10” or more of snow tomorrow - we’ve developed prediction models for a lot of things and they keep getting better).
Anyway, Hari predicts that the empire will fall and the universe will have 1000’s of years of darkness before the infrastructure recovers. He convinces the emperor to set up an outpost on a fringe planet. This outpost is setup to shorten the period of darkness after the empire falls to only 500 years. The books are written around several crisis points that Hari Sheldon’s plan must face both as the empire falls and during the 500 years of darkness.
I was excited a few years ago when Apple announced that they were creating a tv series based on the books (in fact that is why I subscribed to Apple TV). The first season came out in 2021 and the second season came out in 2023. I watched the first season and while it was good, it didn’t capture me like I remember the books doing in my youth. In 2023, I forgot about it. Over the last week, I binge watched the second season (in case you want to check it out, the expectation is the third season will be released in 2025).
Since the outpost was manned by scientists, they idolized Hari Sheldon. Eventually, this idolization turned into a quasi-faith in his prediction model that they used to convince neighboring planets to join their cause. The second season revolved around a man that had witnessed the first crisis and his young apprentice that had never seen Hari Sheldon.
At one scene, the older man was lamenting his doubt in Hari Sheldon’s plan while noticing that the young apprentice had a stronger faith even though she had never seen Hari Sheldon. When I saw that part, I was like “Wow, are they making a faith in Christ analogy?”
“Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:24-29 ESV
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” - Hebrews 11:1-3, 13-16
I truly believe we are all created with a God shaped hole in our lives. That need that everyone of us, saved and not saved, has is the only explanation I can imagine why secular music and entertainment share so many concepts that are the same as what we find as followers of Jesus Christ.
