(REVIEW) Netflix’s new series “3 Body Problem” is a secular show that vividly wrestles with how the direct failures of the secular project have threatened the modern world and wrestles compellingly with nonreligious answers on how to solve them.

There’s rarely any shortage of movies and media showing religion’s evils and potential for oppression, whether it’s the crusades in “The Kingdom of Heaven,” child abuse in “Spotlight,” Protestant-Catholic violence in “Belfast,” injustice in “12 Years a Slave” or science fiction manifestations of religion’s problems like “V for Vendetta” or “Dune: Part II.”

However, Hollywood has recently begun to spotlight the evils of overtly atheist regimes. Last year, “Napoleon” spotlighted the evils and failures of the French Revolution. This year, “3 Body Problem” does the same for Maoist China — but this time emphasizing its atheistic character.

READ: Should Sci-Fi Hits Like ‘Dune’ And ‘Rebel Moon’ Be Considered Faith-Based Films?

“3 Body Problem” is a popular Netflix sci-fi show from the showrunners behind “Game of Thrones” and based on the bestselling book “The Three-Body Problem” by Chinese author Liu Cixin, the first novel in the “Remembrance of Earth's Past” trilogy. The show follows a group of friends, all scientists, as they discover that other researchers around the world are killing themselves — the result of an oncoming alien invasion.

The series is an unusually brilliant sci-fi alien invasion show. There are many reasons why. For starters, it focuses on a group of scientist colleagues rather than an everyman that it presumes its viewers would relate to. This means that at the center of this alien invasion story are heroes who understand what is going on, what the aliens are doing and the deeper philosophical implications of it all. Our heroes can understand what the “three-body problem” is and its implications for how we understand our world and extraterrestrial threats. 

Another way the show is unique is its deeply honest critique of the secular world that it was born into and, in many ways, attempting to preserve. The streaming series opens in Maoist China, where Ye Wenjie is watching her dad be beaten and killed by Communist Party soldiers in front of a cheering mob. The atheism of the Maoist regime is repeatedly emphasized in this scene and elsewhere. Ye Wenjie’s father is publicly chastised before being killed because he embraces the theory of relativity, which says time began, which leaves room for the fact that God may exist.

His attacker makes this point explicitly, to which Ye Wenjie’s father replies, “Science does not say one way or the other” whether God exists. Later, Ye Wenjie says that the Maoists had a poster that showed a man with a hammer smashing “Jesus, Buddha and a rock ’n’ roll record,” which also reads, “Destroy the old world; forge the new world.”  

This is a perfect summary of the project of secular regimes like Maoist China. And not just China, but the projects of German and Italian fascism and communist regimes the world over like the former Soviet Union, North Korea and others. They wish to overturn the old world and its religions and create a new one based on secularism and total power by the state. And yet, this project has been a failure, with tyranny and genocide after genocide that arguably made the oppression of the old world — and all its religions — appear quaint. 

One of the most chilling scenes comes in the second episode. After Ye Wenjie has been systematically beaten down by the Chinese communist regime time and time again, she finally gets a response from the aliens, which is the government project she’s been conscripted for. This alien claims to be a pacifist and tells her not to send out any more messages to space because if she does, his people will come to conquer them. Ye Wenjie hesitates, but then sends a message that says, “Come. We cannot save ourselves.”

Ye Wenjie then starts a cult based on the aliens. They call the aliens, “Our Lord.” They insist that, unlike the religions of the past, this lord is real. Yet they treat “Our Lord” with every bit as much religious trust and fervor as any hyper-charismatic Christian. They constantly say, “If this is what happens, it’s because it’s what ‘The Lord’ wants to happen.” They express ecstatic worship toward “The Lord” and excited expectation that this being will come and set the world right. These followers are also raising their children to attend a form of Sunday School, in which the kids exuberantly ask questions about the aliens who are someday coming to save them.

This parallels the unexpected rise of religious or neoreligious ideologies that have popped up in the West during the 20th century, undermining the view of inevitable secularization. Islam is on the rise in Europe, Christian nationalism has been making headlines in America and many have looked at the rise of the fanatical parts of social justice “woke” ideology as more akin to a religious movement than a secular one.

Mary Harrington wrote for Unheard about how many secular rationalists are aghast that this new, growing movement resembles religion. 

“White officials washing the feet of Black Lives Matter protest leaders, kneeling groups reciting pledges to renounce their privilege, ritual chants, not to mention public punishment of heretics and a growing body of fiercely-defended and not particularly logical doctrine,” Harrington wrote.  

Partly because of this, many people, including celebrities and former atheists, are rejecting secularism as a way to solve the world’s problems and turning toward some version of Christianity.  

Jordan Peterson has recently been pushing the importance of acting as if God exists — even if he may not literally exist. The comedian and actor, known more for sleaze than faith, claimed to have been recently reformed and was baptized. Muslim critic and an outspoken atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali converted to Christianity recently after realizing that atheism had no answers on how to preserve the goodness of Western civilization.  

Jonathan Haidt, in his new book “The Anxious Generation,” agrees with Christians that we have a God-shaped hole in us that we need to fill by behaving as if God is real, even if he doesn’t believe God is real. Historian Tom Holland wrote the book “Dominion,” where he lays out his discoveries that most of today’s Western values, including his own — such as compassion — come from Christianity and may suspect he’s starting to become a Christian himself.

Even Richard Dawkins, one of the most fervent anti-religious people of the New Atheist movement of the early 2000s, recently confirmed that he doesn’t believe in God, but claims to be a “cultural Christian,” saying he likes the values and wants to preserve them over Islam in his home country of the U.K. 

Of course, “3 Body Problem” shouldn’t be interpreted as pro-religion. Even though it’s the secular failures that gave rise to the alien invasion, it’s also those who wish to go back to religious worship (even if it's aliens) who are the villains and it's the secular scientists who are deemed the heroes. It’s people like Dr. Saul Durland, who believes that there’s a naturalistic secular explanation for everything (that you can test with science), who are on the side of the angels. The aliens admit that they would never be able to beat people if they allowed humanity’s science to progress at its own pace before they arrive (in 400 years). So they need to use their technology to sabotage our ability to do science in order to conquer Earth in the future. They explicitly state that they are returning us from our age of science to one of superstition because that’s the only way the aliens can beat us. 

At the same time, the show also admits that these secular heroes may not have the internal resources to motivate them to defeat a future alien threat. Scientists Saul and Auggie both argue there’s no point in fighting these aliens since they won’t arrive until everyone they know and love are long dead. But Auggie argues that means that they should focus on people who are suffering now. Saul, however, says that means that they should focus on present hedonism. 

These fears echo the real demographic problems with more secular populations. Secular populations tend not to have children at the population replacement level, which means long-term secularism (as it is now) would eventually lead to the end of the human race.  

Likewise, atheists commit suicide at higher rates than religious people. This makes sense. As an atheist friend of mine pointed out to me on my podcast, the difference between atheists' and believers' concepts of meaning is not that atheists have no meaning in life; it’s that the meaning is shorter than a believer’s, existing for the atheist’s life and perhaps the lives of loved ones. This is a problem that atheists must confront if they want to have a secular future, as demographics reveal and this show does a good job confronting. 

The fact that “3 Body Problem” admits these challenges within atheism and yet still attempts to give a pro-secular answer is one of the reasons it's one of the most interesting shows of the moment. I am skeptical that the series will ever be able to convincingly give a nonreligious answer to the questions it raises. The show’s bravery to ask these questions and take up the challenge is both laudable and entertaining. I’m excited to see where it goes next. 

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.