Soylent Green Is Made Out of People!

Covering environmental issues as a journalist, I get used to hearing about the latest doomsday prediction. According to New Scientist magazine, Europe could lose half of its plant species within the next 80 years. The culprit? You guess it – global warming. Every problem in the world seems to trace back to logging, global warming, rich people or technology.

I guess the world must have been a perfect place before saws, tail pipes, money or computers.Whenever I see a “news” report about mass extinction, I wonder who tabulates those kind of numbers and how do they know what is going to happen. Just this past week, I learned that there are 20,000 species of known beetles in the world. And there could be a lot more then that. I frequently believe that “scientists” use these figures for shock value, and most journalists are happy to comply without truly challenging their findings. Is global warming as evil as Hitler, Stalin, and the Grinch who stole Christmas combined? I just don’t know. Neither do scientists. Most of their predictions are based on computer models that are highly inaccurate. Should we try to reduce pollution? Absolutely. Should we panic? Probably not.

On a somewhat related note, I saw a decent, B-grade apocalyptic thriller this week when I watched Soylent Green. It is a futuristic movie about a time where overcrowding and environmental pollution has led to the deterioration of the world’s food supply. People riot for food. There are still the rich and the poor. But the world is running out of food. The public doesn’t know how bad the ecosystem has gotten.

A big corporation has developed a revolutionary food source, green wafers called Soylent Green. Charlton Heston plays Robert Thorn, a detective who investigates the murder of a business executive. The murdered man turns out to be a director of the corporation who knew the horrible secret behind Soylent Green.

The big secret turns out to be that Soylent Green is made out of people. Thorn closes out the movie by revealing the secret.

While watching the film, I thought, ‘How ridiculous!’ But then I stopped to consider the premise for a minute. The thought of one being feeding off of the misfortune and misery of another reflects in many ways things that happen in history. It especially parallels the reality of the demonic realm. The New Testament portrays the devil as similar to a roaring lion who roams about seeking whom he may devour. The devil and his demons live to destroy and feed off human misery. They are seeking the souls of men and women every day.

What first seemed outrageous appeared to make sense as I look at the plot from a spiritual perspective. We can either be God’s agents to bring His kingdom down to earth or else we are compost fodder for hell. The choice is up to us.

Remember, “Soylent Green is made out of people!”