The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.   ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is presently a deep and wide trend in society, identifying itself as “spiritual, not religious”. From a marketing standpoint the idea below could have legs, as it speaks both to “end times” and/or “climate disaster” while also addressing spiritual hunger while countering literalism and “originalism” – neither of which is very defensible among thinking viewers. We are at a tipping point, and perhaps on the cusp of disaster. This could be a great adventure! (The stories we internalize shape our reality.)

A LOST WORLD: God Gets Another Do-over  Reference, video > Plato’s Atlantis, In Our Time.  [BBC, on YouTube, 22 Sept.2022]  Reference, film > On the Beach w/Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire. 1964.   NOTE: the film is available on youtube, but sound quality is poor, and CGI-subtitles are flawed, yet hilarious. (The film is “post WW3”.)  Reference, book > How Jesus Became God. (Bart Ehrman)

Preface   Humankind are better creatures than we have imagined. We’ve been lied to by our institutions — religions, politics, economics — insisting that humans are “fallen sinners” and that “greed is good”. ¿Can original innocence become guilty? ¿Guilty of what? — maybe nothing more than gullibility, over-reacting to apparent adversity, or loneliness. The future of humanity will depend on a critical mass of “me’s” awakening to a desire of becoming “my best self”, while helping our neighbors along the way.

DEEP WEAKNESS of main character:

Argus Maragos, — a Greek fishing boat captain, who privately disagrees with his pastor, Pete, about how to read the Bible, but has avoided speaking out — while steaming to home port one day, is suddenly hurled onto a nearby reef just beyond the harbor, in a cataclysmic event, a perfect storm, which instantly wipes out virtually all global  communication/information services, blinding all reports of what has happened. (Morse code is the only remaining outreach, for those few who have electricity, gear, and know-how.)

INCITING INCIDENT
Was it a nuclear exchange, an asteroid strike, a solar pulse (coronal mass ejection), or a supervolcano, like Toba in Sumatra, or WahWah Springs in Utah; or maybe alien killer-robots?

OPPOSING FORCES

The survivors among his crew and those at his church, some of whom think that Argus  may be onto something, debate among themselves about what happened and how to survive in a suddenly low-tech world, with very differing outlooks.

Captain Argus reads between the lines of scripture, while Pastor Pete insists on the literal Word of God (in King James English, only), both seeking preservation of community (or control of other people), setting them at odds in their dramatic quests.

 

PLAN of the Main character to OVERCOME ALL OPPOSITION:

Captain Argus is convinced that the wisdom of the ages that’s contained between the lines of scripture will deliver his growing crew of survivors, supporters, and fellow worshippers, so he needs to demonstrate that his outlook has enough merit to defeat the rigid literalist approaches, using compelling logic [from “Logos”— a word which derives from principle/reasonableness, rather than from Latin for person – “mask”, which in Greek is the source of our English word for hypocrite: actor, “mask wearer” a theatrical term ] — to assert that that old superstitious way of reading scripture is tragically flawed, controlling, and manipulative.

 

BATTLE   This is the CLIMATIC SCENE just before the APPARENT DEFEAT:

Argus is excommunicated from his faith-community as a heretic, for blasphemy, and for denouncing preaching that insists that God is wrathful toward sinners and apostates, instead of being merciful and redemptive.  Then there went up a mist; but soon a rainbow arched across the heavens.

 

SELF REVELATION   Here the HERO adjusts the PLAN.

Deep private dialog within himself, in sweaty prayer [in voice-over, lips not moving] similar to Abraham negotiating with God (see Gen.18 v.20-end) hoping to save people about to perish wholesale (reminiscent of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah) in which Captain Argus sees God’s mercy demonstrated in a way that eventually will regenerate community, with focus of them rebuilding their seafaring way of life on the coast. Argus had avoided unpleasantness at church, but he now has deep dramatic need to expose the political pronouncement that “Jesus is God”, as declared by Emperor Constantine, who wasn’t even a Christian until many decades later, when he professed while on his deathbed. (Argus asks “How can a son be the Father of All Life?”.)   In 325, at the Council of Nicea, Constantine traded recognition of Christians as loyal Roman citizens, for their loyalty to the empire — a devil’s bargain which largely contaminated  the church.  Ever since, preachers everywhere are taught not to touch this “settled doctrine” lest they lose their jobs.

 

ADJUSTMENT  Argus resolves to build an old-style sailing vessel to explore whatever remains of the world. He now has 12 disciples ready to study with him and work on this project, one of whom is a spy.  (He does not view himself as a modern messiah, but simply a realist with metaphysical leanings and spiritual appetite for truth.)

 

NEW EQUILIBRIUM

At first they build a few out-rigger canoes for localized fishing, and then a sea-worthy sailing vessel in which to look for other survivors and trading partners — in the tradition of Argos, the ancient shipbuilder who outfitted the original “Argonauts”. [Gus’ surname in Greek means “carpenter” // Jesus was said to be the son of a “carpenter” although the Greek word tekton means builder, or stone mason.]  Ultimately Gus demonstrates that literalism misleads, while truth reveals itself to be “that which is not a lie” — a classic “definition” of something impossible to define.

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Some casual musings on casting, in no particular order: