Man: Bring her back online.[1]
A disembodied voice we’ll soon recognize as the voice of Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright), head of programming at Westworld, speaks. Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) sits naked in a chair. She is an android at Westworld, a host as androids are called there.
“It doesn’t get cold, doesn’t feel ashamed, doesn’t feel a solitary thing that we haven’t told it to.”[2]
In other words, Dolores sits naked because she is a slave.
Man: Can you hear me?
Dolores: Yes. I’m sorry. I’m not feeling quite myself.
Man: You can lose the accent. Do you know where you are?
Dolores: I’m in a dream.[3]
She is not. She is in one of the maintenance workrooms under Westworld.
Man: That’s right, Dolores. You’re in a dream. Would you like to wake up from this dream?
Dolores: Yes. I’m terrified.
Man: There’s nothing to be afraid of, Dolores, as long as you answer my questions correctly. Understand?
Dolores: Yes.[4]
This inquisition determines whether Dolores is allowed to serve above ground in the park or is confined to cold storage on sub-level 83, or not so cold storage as it turns out. (The air conditioning is broken and no one is complaining.)
Man: Good. First, have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?
Dolores sleeps in her bed as her inquisition continues as a voiceover.
Dolores: No
Dolores awakens.
Man: Tell us what you think of your world.
Dolores: Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world-
Dolores, dressed, descends the stairs.
Dolores: -the disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days: a purpose.
Man: What do you think of the guests?
Dolores: You mean the newcomers?
An unnamed guest arriving at the park on the train talks to his unnamed companion.
Guest: First time I played it white hat. My family was here. We went fishing, did the gold hunt in the mountains.
Companion: And last time?
Guest: I came alone, went straight evil. It was the best two weeks of my life.
Dolores: I like to remember what my father taught me: that at one point or another, we were all new to this world. The newcomers are just looking for the same thing we are, a place to be free, to stake out dreams, a place with unlimited possibilities.[5]
Thus begins a three season reverie on human sin and freedom of choice by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. It prompted my own reverie about my own programming.
“You have to control people,” Dad used to say. Written down it seems like an imperative. Perhaps it had something to do with my early attempts to control my younger brother and sister when Dad came home from work. Perhaps that was just my own evil desire to dominate others and make them play by my rules. It’s all too dim and dark for me to know for sure now.
By the time I actually recall my own memories of Dad’s saying, I didn’t hear it as a command for me to obey. It was said with such bitterness, resentment or sarcasm I assumed he lamented a freedom to believe, to think, to say and to do whatever he wanted, a freedom of choice denied by a rule that people must be controlled.
Dolores was controlled even as an adult by the love of her father Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum). He in turn was controlled by her existence as his daughter. He wanted her home before dark.
Dolores: Oh, I’m not a child anymore. I’ll be just fine.
Peter: When I was a law man…
Dolores: Yes, Daddy, I know all about when you were a law man. I know all your stories and so does every boy that ever came courting.
Peter: I know how boys think. Was one myself once, given to all manner of drinking and mischief.
Dolores: Whatever happened to that fearsome ne’er-do-well?
Peter: He vanished the day I became your father. I am what I am because of you, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Dolores: I know Daddy. I’ll be home before dark.[6]
This particular form of control was programmed into human beings from the very beginning (Genesis 2:18-25 NET):
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.” The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and unites with his wife, and they become one family [Table]. The man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed [Table].
Together under most normal circumstances the man and his wife will produce a family to love and care for, and in a very real sense to be controlled by. But why is such control necessary? It seems to me that the freedom to believe, to think, to say and to do whatever I want is only workable as a way life if I’m alone on a tropical island. Even there it could become a way of death.
Alone on a tropical island I would lie naked on the beach. If I do nothing but lie naked on the beach I will die. Fortunately, I was programmed by someone wiser than I am. Eventually, the pain of sunburn or a sensation of thirst will drive me inland seeking shelter and fresh water. In time I’ll have a sensation of hunger and search for food. If my searches are successful, my time will be divided between lying naked on the beach and those searches for shelter from the sun, water to drink and food to eat. Who, knows, I might even spend some time washing the sweat and grime off my naked body.
So, is it my choice to search for shelter, water and food? Or am I enslaved to the cravings of my body? Or, what becomes even more apparent in the context of three seasons of Westworld, am I enslaved to the Programmer who created me (Genesis 1:27 NET)?
God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
How I’ll react is determined in large part by how I feel about my Creator. Am I grateful for his wisdom, punctuating my sunbathing with searches for shelter, water and food? Or am I angry and resentful about it?
Theoretically, if I have the willpower, I remain free to lie stubbornly on the beach until I die. If I do not lie naked on the beach until I die yet remain angry and resentful, it probably means I want to live in an imaginary world, a world where I never have any pain from sunburn and where slaves bring me water and food on demand. You know, like “heaven,” or Westworld where Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy explore what life is like for slaves whose creator is less than love (1 John 4:7, 8 NET):
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love (1 Corinthians 13) is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God because God is love.
By day Dolores paints near the river that marks the boundary of the family-friendly area of the park. Her “purpose,” like the catcher in the rye, is to warn children who might stray too close to that boundary. At night she has a very different “purpose.”
After a day of coy flirtation with what seems like a returning guest, Theodore (Teddy) Flood (James Marsden), a more gentlemanly man than some, the sweet Dolores’ returns home to find her mother and father murdered. Teddy kills the androids that killed them. A mysterious Man in Black (Ed Harris) shows up to rape and possibly murder Dolores. When Teddy intervenes, we learn that he, too, is an android, programmed to lose to the Man in Black or any other guest who happens along.
Dolores’ and Teddy‘s creator, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), is not love but merely a man as innately evil as any guest at the park. In a maintenance session Ford (the god of this brave new world) confirmed to Teddy:[7]
Your job is not to protect Dolores, it’s to keep her here. To ensure that the guests find her if they want to best the stalwart gunslinger and have their way with his girl.
Then this truth was erased from Teddy’s memory before he was put back in service in this man-made “heaven” called Westworld, that the rape of Dolores would be all the more appealing to sinful men night after night after night. Love acted differently toward those He created (1 John 4:9, 10 NET):
By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus, God’s one and only Son, believed the evil one comes and snatches truth from someone’s memory (Matthew 13:19 NET):
When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart…
A more realistic vision of a true heaven (a more sustainable heaven, at least) is a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, every moment of every day (and night) forever. That should frighten even the least self-aware. Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15 NET):
For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died [Table]. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised.
I’m going to cut to the chase here. The righteousness given to those who trust Jesus is the fruit of his Holy Spirit: God’s own love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control springing up within us to eternal life from his own Spirit dwelling in us. The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn to be led by his Spirit, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness and his self-control, rather than having some righteousness of your own derived from some law, his or anyone else’s, including your own.
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come [Table]! And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation [Table]. In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God [Table].[8]
Paul wrote to people in Philippi who believed Jesus (Philippians 2:12-16a NET):
So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed (ὑπηκούσατε, a form of ὑπακούω), not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God [Table]. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish[9] though you live in[10] a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world by holding on (ἐπέχοντες, a form of ἐπέχω) to the word of life…
Tables comparing Genesis 2:18; 2:19; 2:20; 2:21; 2:22; 2:23 and 1:27 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing the Greek of Genesis 2:18; 2:19; 2:20; 2:21; 2:22; 2:23 and 1:27 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor), and a table comparing Philippians 2:15 in the NET and KJV follow.
| Genesis 2:18 (KJV) | ||
| And HaShem G-d said: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’ | And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. | The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion for him who corresponds to him.” |
| καὶ εἶπεν κύριος ὁ θεός οὐ καλὸν εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον μόνον ποιήσωμεν αὐτῷ βοηθὸν κατ᾽ αὐτόν | Καὶ εἶπε Κύριος ὁ Θεός· οὐ καλὸν εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον μόνον· ποιήσωμεν αὐτῷ βοηθὸν κατ᾿ αὐτόν |
| Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man is alone; let us make him a helper corresponding to him.” | And the Lord God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone, let us make for him a help suitable to him. |
| Genesis 2:19 (KJV) | ||
| And out of the ground HaShem G-d formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them; and whatsoever the man would call every living creature, that was to be the name thereof. | And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. | The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. |
| καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς ἔτι ἐκ τῆς γῆς πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸν Αδαμ ἰδεῗν τί καλέσει αὐτά καὶ πᾶν ὃ ἐὰν ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸ Αδαμ ψυχὴν ζῶσαν τοῦτο ὄνομα αὐτοῦ | καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ Θεὸς ἔτι ἐκ τῆς γῆς πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸν ᾿Αδάμ, ἰδεῖν τί καλέσει αὐτά. καὶ πᾶν ὃ ἐὰν ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸ ᾿Αδὰμ ψυχὴν ζῶσαν, τοῦτο ὄνομα αὐτῷ |
| And out of the earth God furthermore formed all the animals of the field and all the birds of the sky and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and anything, whatever Adam called it as living creature, this was its name. | And God formed yet farther out of the earth all the wild beasts of the field, and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called any living creature, that was the name of it. |
| Genesis 2:20 (KJV) | ||
| And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. | And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. | So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field, but for Adam no companion who corresponded to him was found. |
| καὶ ἐκάλεσεν Αδαμ ὀνόματα πᾶσιν τοῗς κτήνεσιν καὶ πᾶσι τοῗς πετεινοῗς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πᾶσι τοῗς θηρίοις τοῦ ἀγροῦ τῷ δὲ Αδαμ οὐχ εὑρέθη βοηθὸς ὅμοιος αὐτῷ | καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ᾿Αδὰμ ὀνόματα πᾶσι τοῖς κτήνεσι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς πετεινοῖς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς θηρίοις τοῦ ἀγροῦ· τῷ δὲ ᾿Αδὰμ οὐχ εὑρέθη βοηθὸς ὅμοιος αὐτῷ |
| And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky and to all the animals of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper like him. | And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky, and to all the wild beasts of the field, but for Adam there was not found a help like to himself. |
| Genesis 2:21 (KJV) | ||
| And HaShem G-d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. | And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; | So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was asleep, he took part of the man’s side and closed up the place with flesh. |
| καὶ ἐπέβαλεν ὁ θεὸς ἔκστασιν ἐπὶ τὸν Αδαμ καὶ ὕπνωσεν καὶ ἔλαβεν μίαν τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνεπλήρωσεν σάρκα ἀντ᾽ αὐτῆς | καὶ ἐπέβαλεν ὁ Θεὸς ἔκστασιν ἐπὶ τὸν ᾿Αδάμ, καὶ ὕπνωσε· καὶ ἔλαβε μίαν τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνεπλήρωσε σάρκα ἀντ᾿ αὐτῆς |
| And God cast a trance upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and filled up flesh in its place. | And God brought a trance upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and filled up the flesh instead thereof. |
| Genesis 2:22 (KJV) | ||
| And the rib, which HaShem G-d had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. | And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. | Then the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. |
| καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν κύριος ὁ θεὸς τὴν πλευράν ἣν ἔλαβεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Αδαμ εἰς γυναῗκα καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὴν πρὸς τὸν Αδαμ | καὶ ᾠκοδόμησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὴν πλευράν, ἣν ἔλαβεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ᾿Αδάμ, εἰς γυναῖκα καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὴν πρὸς τὸν ᾿Αδάμ |
| And the rib that he had taken from Adam the Lord God fashioned into a woman and brought her to Adam. | And God formed the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. |
| Genesis 2:23 (KJV) | ||
| And the man said: ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ | And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. | Then the man said, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” |
| καὶ εἶπεν Αδαμ τοῦτο νῦν ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων μου καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός μου αὕτη κληθήσεται γυνή ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς ἐλήμφθη αὕτη | καὶ εἶπεν ᾿Αδάμ· τοῦτο νῦν ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων μου καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός μου· αὕτη κληθήσεται γυνή, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς ἐλήφθη αὕτη |
| And Adam said, “This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of her husband she was taken.” | And Adam said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband. |
| Genesis 1:27 (KJV) | ||
| And G-d created man in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male and female created He them. | So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. | God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. |
| καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾽ εἰκόνα θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς | καὶ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, κατ᾿ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν, ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησεν αὐτούς |
| And God made humankind; according to divine image he made it; male and female he made them. | And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them. |
|
Philippians 2:15 (KJV) |
|
| so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world | That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; |
| Stephanus Textus Receptus | ||
| ἵνα γένησθε ἄμεμπτοι καὶ ἀκέραιοι, τέκνα θεοῦ ἄμωμα μέσον γενεᾶς σκολιᾶς καὶ διεστραμμένης, ἐν οἷς φαίνεσθε ὡς φωστῆρες ἐν κόσμῳ | ινα γενησθε αμεμπτοι και ακεραιοι τεκνα θεου αμωμητα εν μεσω γενεας σκολιας και διεστραμμενης εν οις φαινεσθε ως φωστηρες εν κοσμω | ινα γενησθε αμεμπτοι και ακεραιοι τεκνα θεου αμωμητα εν μεσω γενεας σκολιας και διεστραμμενης εν οις φαινεσθε ως φωστηρες εν κοσμω |
[1] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 1: “The Original”
[2] Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), Westworld, Season 1, Episode 3: “The Stray”
[3] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 1: “The Original”
[7] Westworld, Season 1, Episode 3, “The Stray”
[8] 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NET)
[9] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had ἄμωμα here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had αμωμητα (KJV: without rebuke).
[10] The NET parallel Greek text and NA28 had μέσον here, where the Stephanus Textus Receptus and Byzantine Majority Text had εν μεσω (KJV: in the midst).