Many of us may recall the popular song of the 90’s by Joan Osborne ‘One of Us’. In the song the lyrics convey a concept that God could be closer in reach than we thought. The singer poses the idea that God could be a lonely person we sit next to on a bus. The various sects of Christianity view God (or Jehovah) as all powerful omnipotent creator of all things. Therefore, God would unlikely be lonely, or a slob, or an average living person as implied in the song. What if, however, this concept was explored more hypothetically.
The Man from Earth
The 2007 science fiction drama film, ‘The Man from Earth’, tells the story of John Oldman, a professor who asserts that he is 14,000 years old. Nearly all of the movie is dialogue, and it takes place during Oldman’s goodbye party at his residence. Intellectual disputes between Oldman and his other faculty members move the plot along. Professor Oldman is getting ready to move to a new residence. His colleagues arrive to throw him an unplanned departure party: Dan, an anthropological; Sandy, a historian; Art, an archaeologist; his younger student Linda; and Harry, a biologist. Edith is a professor of art history and a devoted Christian.
Under Pressure
John, under pressure from his coworkers to justify his departure, discloses, slowly and grudgingly, that he was born in the Paleolithic era. He claims to have lived for almost 14 thousand years and to move every ten years to prevent people from noticing that he never ages. He presents his story as a potential science-fiction tale at first, but he ultimately stops using hypotheticals and starts responding to inquiries in the first person.
In order to determine his genuine motivations, his coworkers accept his explanation as a working hypothesis even if they don’t believe it. According to John, he spent two millennia as a Sumerian, then as a Babylonian, before moving east to follow the Buddha. Although he acknowledges that he still thought the earth was flat at the time, he claims to have had the opportunity to sail with Columbus and to have become friends with Van Gogh, whose original paintings he reportedly has as a gift from the artist.
Is the Impossible Possible?
When the topic of religion comes up, John says he doesn’t practice any. He does not rule out the existence of an all-powerful God, even though he does not necessarily believe in one. Under pressure from the group, John grudgingly admits that he became the inspiration for Jesus by attempting to introduce the Buddha’s teachings into the eastern Roman Empire. Emotions are running high in the room after this realization. He discusses how the Romans and Jewish people mistook his words and intentions as a Godly Messiah and thus crucified him. He states that he pretended he was dead, but he only passed out, then woke up three days later running away to Central Europe. The group’s representative Christian literalist, Edith, breaks down in tears.
The idea that God or Jesus could be one of us somehow is understandably baffling and potentially offensive. However, can we ever be sure that its completely impossible?
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