In a comment on our article titled "’Dark Knight’ Evokes Interesting Philosophical, Theological ideas," Mike Tooney presents some highly enlightening thoughts on what the act of creation truly requires, and what it says about human ambitions and abilities.

 Heath Ledger as the Joker burning money in 'The Dark Knight'

Creation, Destruction, and Human Ambition

By Mike Tooney 

"He is not a creator, however, but exclusively a destroyer."

I think we use the term "creator" rather too loosely these days—as in "Chris Carter, creator of ‘The X-Files.’"

I think a case can be made for the lack of true creativity in any human endeavor–a grim assessment, I know.

To truly create involves starting with nothing ("no thing") and producing something.

"Creators" throughout history have never been able to do that.

They have had to start with preexisting materials and/or ideas formed in their brains (which are themselves also preexisting materials) and rearrange them into something "new."

Like mankind, Satan himself was a created being and by definition incapable of God-like creativity; he could only rearrange what God had already created, in his case destructively. Like Satan, the Joker can’t create or even uncreate; he can only disarrange the created order. Satan cannot dissolve a single atomic particle of God’s creation, only cause chaos in the cosmos; similarly, the Joker can only threaten to destabilize the established social order—what could be called the "cosmopolis" (the "world of people")—which is admittedly, from the purely human perspective, bad enough, but from God’s perspective no real threat.

Broadly speaking, true creation is impossible for humankind.

Physics, chemistry, and biology all deal with preexistent materials; rearranging matter and energy may produce something "new" to human experience, but never something out of nothing.

The time for creation ab initio has passed and may never return.

If a scientist claims to have produced "life" or a new type of matter, don’t believe him. He’s just gratifying his ego, indulging in a fantasy just as strong but diametrically opposite to the Joker’s. Neither the scientist nor the Joker can ever achieve such goals.

But I’ve gone off on a tangent, I see.

Leave it to you find unexpected insights in a Hollywood film of which even the producers may be unaware.