The 33 – Reflections on Atheism

Spoiler warning. Though I tried not to include any major spoilers.

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In this modern age where atheism has become the new trend, I was lately contemplating over its possible impact on society. I recalled an interesting movie that I have watched not so long ago while embarking on this thought journey. The 33 revolved around the story of 33 mine workers who were trapped inside the collapsed San José Mine’s refuge, 700 meters underground, for 70 days. In my opinion, the movie allows the watcher to reflect upon the internal struggle of the characters, the consequences of belief and disbelief, and the failure of the latter in providing a background for a meaningful struggle.

In the light of incompetent administration, The San Jose mine which survived for over fifty years was very poorly equipped. It was functioning as a time-bomb waiting to collapse on top of its poor workers. Those who survived the collapse were already put under tremendous physical and mental stress. When they realized they were stuck, they came to discover that the refuge held enough food for thirty people for merely three days. Not only was the main route blocked by the “heart of the mountain,” as Mario Sepúlveda put it, but the chimney ladders – the only other way out – were also incomplete due to the company’s negligence as they soon found out. Above the refuge, Carlos Castillo, the owner of the mine, had witnessed many collapses where neither any survivors were able to escape nor were the company’s funds ever able to fund a rescue mission. It was “common protocol” to wait for three days then set up the gravestones and memorials before moving on to a new mine site. Unexpectedly, the government took on the job of rescuing the miners. However, even with government supplied drills, the process of digging to the refuge that lied 700 meters under an unstable mountain could take at least a dozen days with very low accuracy of arriving at the target. The chances of these miners to be rescued were technically zero.

The 33 miners were startled by an internal conflict. On one hand, they knew the company’s financial status could not afford rescuing them and that even the government could not drill through a mountain before they are dead of starvation. On the other hand, they wanted to cling on the slightest hope that, perhaps, they could be saved and hugged by their loved ones again. It was an internal struggle between those two forces that existed in the conscious mind of every one of those miners. The former force dominated the argumentative mind of Luis “Don Lucho” Urzúa, the shift foreman, who took it upon himself to explicitly explain to the other miners their desperate state and the impossibility of escaping this grave. Knowing the mine’s fragile state and after witnessing its collapse, Luis was confident, along with the other miners, that they were “buried alive.” The shift foreman directly addressed the other miners in agony, he explained that there was no way anyone above them would even attempt to rescue them. “It took them a 100 years to dig this deep!” he went on to plaintively point out, “they’ll wait three days then close the mine and put up the gravestones.” However, despite witnessing the same events, Mario, an ex-veteran thought different. It was this verbal argument between the shift foreman and the ex-veteran that depicted the internal struggle between these two forces. Mario was dominated instead by that faint hope that hopelessly stood against these obvious despondent facts. In determined denial, Mario “chose” to believe otherwise and proclaimed that belief in front of everyone. “I don’t believe that!” he uttered right before stating what rather seems impossible but is the only hope for moving forward, “and if they [the company] don’t, our families will [dig us out] with their bare hands if it’s necessary.” Given his charismatic, leader-like approach, Mario was not even afraid to ascribe that belief to everyone in the mine except for Luis, “Now, you believe whatever you want, it’s your problem.”

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  Mario Sepúlveda on the left with Luis “Don Lucho” Urzúa, the shift foreman, on the right.

In the next few scenes, we discover that under the plan of the chief engineer, it requires at least 8 days to reach the refuge with “the odds being against them.” One has to put in mind, that even those above had much less hope to believe that the miners were alive to begin with. Given these events, the watcher is put in a situation where it is clear that Mario’s remarks were based on false hope. Though, the real question lies in whether outlaying that belief was necessary for the survival of these miners. When Mario concluded his speech, the shift foreman calmly conceded and stepped backwards, sitting by himself on the stairs. Luis could have easily won the argument in that situation. The facts clearly demonstrated that Mario was clinging on mere illusions. However, I think it’s not only that Luis himself wanted to submit to that “false” hope but he also did not wish for others to dive into his own despair. What could put these miners into order while struggling for survival without the false hope of them meeting their loved ones? Luis figured that the only way forward, the only way this refuge would not turn into a chaotic pit of hopelessness is the belief in that story.

Mario’s charisma alone was not enough to drag the miners to his side. I do think that the belief holds itself objectively attractive and meaningful that the presenter does not necessarily need to be very talented in articulating it. After all, this belief was an essential element in attaching meaning to their struggle as they went on to divide rations among themselves and not kill each other. In my estimation, the concept of religion objectively holds itself appealing to humanity due to identical reasons. One of the main concepts that almost all religions agree to offer is an escape from this un-necessary loop of suffering that ends with an unescapable death. In a sense, we are also buried alive but in a massive hole labeled the universe. We are trapped within a body that can live up to an average seventy years, and we are imprisoned in an expanding universe that will inevitably collapse. Afterwards, everything that civilization has built will be rendered meaningless. Contemplating on these ideas alone is enough to believe that there is no one out there to rescue us. There is no hope, salvation, or meaning to our struggle. Hence, the belief in a “rescuer,” a story that could attach meaning and sanctity to life finds itself necessary for the preservation of hope, meaning, and order within society.

I do not intend to argue for the truth of a certain belief due to the dire need for it. Rather, the conceivability or truth of these claims are irrelevant for this discussion. I am instead offering a few of my reflections on how the spread of atheism or disbelief is not only unnecessary but harmful regardless of its epistemological truth or conceivability. Stripping away the “false” hope that civilizations have held onto deeply for centuries to progress is not necessarily beneficent. Many societies, just like that in the refuge, would have easily turned into a turmoil given the vacuum left after stripping away the sanctity of life. Meaningless suffering would take over. Rationally, an initial presupposition that life is unbearable and evil leads to an inevitable conclusion where everything at hand is mobilized to eliminate life. Nevertheless, I am aware of recent evidence supporting technologically advanced, secular societies remaining socially cohere while deviating from religious belief. Though, I believe that came to be possible through predominantly rising levels of security and replacing that said false hope with other illusionary abstract, relative values. Under the atheistic worldview, it is essential not to hastily encourage “freeing” society from “false beliefs” without thinking of inevitable horrendous consequences.

Even though The 33 was an ordinary movie, it allowed me to reflect upon themes that I love to think deeply about. The presentation of the internal struggle between belief and disbelief under the collapsed mine was very similar to that which we encounter on the ground above. Only the former, in my perspective, provides a secure basis for a meaningful, sacred struggle.

Written by Zein Hanouneh