X Files : I Want To Believe

I was delighted to read today that Twentieth Century has confirmed that the title for its second X Files movie  “I Want to Believe."

The  movie is to be released at the end of July and does team up David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson again as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Chris Carter is still the director and he co-wrote the script with Frank Spotnitz.

In a media interview Chris Carter revealed that the movie will not focus on the familiar alien mythology thread but will feature a stand-alone story based on a struggle between faith and science.

X Files fans may recall that a poster, in Mulder’s office, with the slogan "I Want to Believe" was a permanent fixture of throughout the series.

This is a movie I will be eagerly looking forward to because the juggling of faith and science often becomes a focus on our tours and retreats.

As you may know, we delve into ancient culture of this land now called Ireland and its so called science is in the hands of documents written by monastic scribes recalling times of thousands of years before their scribing along with the suspect carbon dating and other techniques of the forensic archaeologists. I do not say “suspect” as a smear as they do work with the best physical, mechanical and mathematical tools they currently have.

Even so, when I share a story of mythology there is sometimes a call from a traveller “where’s the proof?”. I feel the proof is in our interpretation and how we allow this to guide us.

There was a controversial comment on Ireland’s RTE 1, on the Late Late Show, I did not catch the name of the gentleman who made it, but he remarked on how the first scriptures of the life of Jesus, that we refer to today, was written more than 100 years after his death. He challenged the audience to be able to write a document on events two weeks after they happened and see how accurate they really are.

For Christians, the proof of Jesus, of Christ, is how they interpret the scriptures and allow them to guide them, which I feel is far more important than being able to measure his precise movements and record his exact quotations. 

Thinking of this, I am very curious about the plot and content of this upcoming X Files movie, which we must also remember is drama and entertainment.

However, I think we often learn a lot more and achieve more from the effects of good drama than we can ever learn from academic text books.