The finale of the first season of Westworld went out in its usual bloody, sensual mess, only this time, we got 90 minutes of it. But the tenth episode touched on a new subject that has previously been overlooked: the existence of God. Since this is a science-fiction show created by liberal writers on the even more “progressive” HBO network, it’s about as bad as you can expect.
The episode “The Bicameral Mind” features a brief scene between Westworld park owner Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and park humanoid "host" Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) who has finally come to realize her robotic background. Ford remarks on the classic Michelangelo portrait The Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel noting that beneath the obvious depiction there “could be another meaning. Something deeper. Something hidden, perhaps. A metaphor.” Dolores notes that he means a "lie," to which Ford agrees, and it gets worse from there.
Bernard: So he died for nothing. The hosts kept gaining consciousness and you kept rolling them back.
Ford: No. She wasn't truly conscious. She didn't pull that trigger. It was Arnold pulling the trigger through her. At least that's how I saw it at the time. I was so close to opening the park that to acknowledge your consciousness would have destroyed my dreams.
Dolores: So, we're trapped here... Inside your dream. You'll never let us leave.
Ford: Wasn't it Oppenheimer who said that any man whose mistakes take 10 years to correct is quite a man? Mine have taken 35. Now, that is the gun you used to kill Arnold. You were always drawn to it, so I had Bernard leave it somewhere where you would find it. Thought you might want it back. You're probably right, Dolores. Michelangelo did tell a lie. See, it took 500 years for someone to notice something hidden in plain sight. It was a doctor who noticed the shape of the human brain. The message being that... The divine gift does not come from a higher power... But from our own minds. Tell me, Dolores, did you find what you were looking for? And do you understand who you will need to become... If you ever want to leave this place? Forgive me.
I don’t know what’s more arrogant, the park owners who want to create consciousness or these writers who want to take one of the most iconic pieces of religious imagery and turn it into a human delusion. Just like they think humans create their own divine intelligence in God, the hosts apparently create their own image in the humans they call "gods." What a miserable existence.
Not only is it miserable, it’s also highly inaccurate. While we can’t fully understand Michelangelo’s motives behind the painting, we can at least start from the fact that he did believe in God. And that the doctor who noticed the brain in the painting 500 years later actually said it referred to God granting human intelligence, not being human intelligence. I know the show's science-fiction, but when it touches upon real subjects, I expect some attachment to the truth.
Or, better yet, how about the writers just ignore subjects they clearly don't believe in or support entirely. Hey, if they don’t respect Michelangelo’s work, I don’t have to respect theirs.
