[Dead Space] Eternal Life

Mutated foes and dark themes dominate this week’s series on Dead Space. Grab your plasma cutter and come along as we discuss sin, religious cults, and those things that make us afraid. Last time we looked into this crazy cult-like religion called Unitology. In this post we’re continuing to discuss Romans 6:23 while looking more closely at the central part of Unitology- the Marker.

If Unitology is a prime example of bad religion, then the Marker is the physical symbol and embodiment of that religion. The Unitologists believe that the Marker will provide triumph over death and act as a key to the afterlife. If its secrets are unlocked, then access to heaven will be open, supposedly. But this is an erroneous view of how the world works. Trying to make salvation happen for ourselves yields a very bad result because our sin will always outweigh any good that we do. At the most basic level, we can all relate to this. How hard is it to break habits? How many times have we made the same mistake over and over? Is it possible to truly fix those mistakes?

The Marker acts as a representation of this sin problem we all have. Much like the Marker, sin can work its way in us and through us in two ways. The first way is through an external influence such as a tempting situation or direct influence from a demonic force. But secondly, those influences are only effective because of the other way sin can work, through the existing weaknesses we have as humans.

Pictured: Ruiner of everything.

The external origin of sin comes through temptation. This may be something inadvertent happening around us or it could be a more deliberate and sinister force at work. The Marker (appropriately colored red in the above picture) can be likened demonic forces. Ok, “demonic” has indeed shown up twice now, but yes, the assertion is that Satan and demons are real. They, like the Marker, can act as an outside stimulus that instigates sinful behavior. The Marker used visions of loved ones to encourage people along a path that would ultimately lead to their destruction.

Dead Space’ narrative would not have happened on it’s own, but was caused by the existence of the Marker. Additionally, the Marker provided for Isaac and other characters a false sense of reality in order to encourage people to do it’s will. Likewise, Satan and demons can provide opportunities for sin that would not have existed otherwise. It was through Satan’s presence and influence in the Garden of Eden that allowed him to put distorted ideas into the heads of Adam and Eve. He convinced them that they could be like God, or even better than Him.

These distortions led to our downfall and now our very nature is inclined towards trusting ourselves over God. The pattern of relying on our own efforts to achieve success or redemption is engrained into our very being. The Marker points to this fact in that it is even vaguely shaped like a human DNA strand. It is also revealed that the Marker emits a signal that interacts with the human brain. In fact, the symbols engraved on the Marker are decoded and found to correspond with the human genetic code. This all point to the fact that the Marker does not do it’s work alone, but through speaking to something already broken inside of us.

Sin’s ability to work on us from the outside in is only possible because we are already subject to the distortion of Satan’s lies in the Garden. Our very being is prone to twisted and sinful behavior. Paul describes his struggle with sin and says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The Marker promises to transform our bodies into ones that can live eternally, but our bodies are only capable of destruction and death. This is apparent even in the physical frailty of our bodies. If you haven’t experienced this yet, just wait a few years and you’ll see how quickly your body’s functions tend to go downhill on the way to the grave.

These bodies will not last forever because of the degrading effects of sin. However, our bodies were originally intended to be much better. When Jesus returns from death, he exhibits what we were meant to be and what it will be like to have a redeemed body. We will no longer experience death or sickness. We may even gain some superpowers on top of that! There are a few times where Jesus instantly leaves or shows up out of nowhere, presumably through transportation or by walking through walls. Then there’s that whole rising from death thing, which included busting out of layers and layers of funeral wrapping through sheer strength. And of course we can’t forget the power he demonstrated upon his dramatic exit from earth: flying.

In conclusion, the Marker is able to violently rewrite the human genome for evil purposes, but Jesus is able to remake our bodies from being sinful to being perfect, as God originally intended. Jesus effectively dismembers our sinful nature just like Issac Clarke dismembers the Necromorphs. Through this new body that Jesus provides we have access to eternal life, which is the gift of God as promised in Romans 6:23.

Questions:

When have you felt as though your body was frail or betraying you?

In what ways does sin distort your thinking?

What is in your life that prevents you from experiencing eternal life?

The story continues next time as we look at how these themes are expanded upon in Dead Space 2.

[Portal 2] GLaDOS: Prometheus and the Potato Battery

This week’s series on Portal 2 will focus on the three main characters- GLaDOS, Wheatley, and Cave Johnson. We’ll look at their unique journeys and what we can learn from them in this test chamber we call life. Today we’ll examine GLaDOS’s story and how it parallels with two other well-known figures.

The story of our favorite sarcastic and malevolent A.I. known as GLaDOS starts with a human woman named Caroline, the trusted assistant of Aperture Science’s founder Cave Johnson whom we learn about in Portal 2. As per Cave Johnson’s request, Caroline’s mind was used (willingly or not, we’re not sure) as the framework for what would become GLaDOS. Some of her traits and human characteristics found their way into GLaDOS’s inner workings from the beginning (more on that later).

GLaDOS is eventually completed and, as is always the case with highly advanced computers, decides to use her power to exterminate all the inhabitants of Aperture Science. Once she was finally given consciousness, she wasted no time releasing her precious neurotoxin on the helpless scientists who created her. The story from there is her quest to constantly conduct tests for the advancement of science. GLaDOS eventually wakes up Chell as her test subject and thus we have the events of Portal.

Starting with Portal, GLaDOS’s story begins to parallel that of the mythological Greek Titan Prometheus. He was a god among gods and he had a special interest in mankind. Prometheus is credited for giving fire to humanity and thus kick-starting technology and civilization. GLaDOS, likewise, provides a portal gun (advanced technology) to Chell (humanity) in the hopes of scientific advancement.

In Portal 2, Chell and Wheatley eventually overthrow GLaDOS and she is turned into a sad little potato battery and thrown down a shaft into the depths of Aperture Science in much the same way that Prometheus was cast down by the gods. After being banished to the mortal world, Prometheus’s punishment was to be chained to a rock and have his liver eaten by birds everyday. When Chell finally catches up to GLaDOS, she’s in a nest being attacked….by birds.

This was an intentional parallel by the game writers which, by the way, I was not the first or only to notice. Also, another part of Prometheus’ story is that he was cast into the pit of Tartaros…

Birds, pits, overthrows, punishments, gods, potatoes….what do we make of all this? Well aside from showing that game writers also know how to read classic literature, the stories of Prometheus and GLaDOS bring up another well-known parallel. GLaDOS is very much like someone who is not mythological, but very real- Satan.

Satan thought he knew better than God and so he led an uprising to rebel against him. Like GLaDOS, he betrayed his creator under the illusion that he was superior. Satan then came to roam the earth among humanity in the same way that GLaDOS had to reside as a potato on the end of Chell’s portal gun. Satan will also one day be thrown into a pit.

Just as GLaDOS and Prometheus thought they had something to offer humanity, Satan felt that he had a “gift” that he could grant us. He convinced Adam and Eve of the same lie that he believed, which is that it would be better for them to be like God, knowing the difference between good and evil. This is what has led to our human depravity and all the problems we have today.

GLaDOS’s relationship with Chell is an accurate illustration of how Satan can work in our lives. GLaDOS is constantly hurling lies (cake anyone?), insulting remarks about body image (“Look at you, soaring through the air like an eagle… piloting a blimp”), statements of worthlessness (“For the record, you are adopted and that’s terrible”), and anything else to demoralize Chell.

Satan likewise speaks lies to us (although they are admittedly much less amusing and harder to disregard than GLaDOS’s). 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” And Satan is a better liar than GLaDOS too. Jesus said in John 8:44 that lying is his first language and that he is the “father of lies.”

The final piece of GLaDOS’ story is her revelation at the end of Portal 2. She has learned the effect that Caroline’s influence has had on her and she promptly deletes Caroline from her memory. GLaDOS cannot function as a maniacal science-driven artificial construct with something as useless as human compassion hindering her thinking.

Satan led us into learning good and evil and our knowledge of evil prevents us from being good. But the knowledge of good and human compassion is what keeps GLaDOS from being the completely heartless, evil scientist she was designed to be (until she deletes Caroline). Portal 2 leaves us with GLaDOS back in charge of the facility, free to exercise her “godhood” over Aperture Science. Thankfully, we live in a reality where a truly good and just God will not allow such evil to prevail.

Question:

What lies are you being fed? How is Satan trying to devour you?

Please sound off in the comments with your thoughts and reactions. Next time we’ll take a look at the bumbling intelligence core Wheatley. Come back soon….you monster.