Прогрессивный журнал Генезис

A short note on divine in- existence in our secular time Let’s begin with The Rapture (1991, written and directed by Michael Tolkin who also wrote the scenario for Altman’s Player), a film in which Mimi Rogers superbly plays Sharon, a young LA woman who works during the day as a phone operator endlessly repeating the same questions in a small cubicle among doyens of others, while in the evenings she engages in swinging orgies. Bored and dissatisfied at leading such empty life, Sharon becomes member of a sect which preaches that the end of times and Rapture are imminent; turning into a passionate believer, she begin to practice a new pious lifestyle, gets married with Randy, one of her previous swinging partners, and has a daughter Mary with him. Six years later, when Randy, now also a devoted Christian, is shot to death by a madman, this senseless catastrophe makes her and her daughter even more convinced that the rapture is soon approaching. Sharon believes god told her she go with Mary to a nearby desert camping place and wait there until the two will be taken into heaven where they will be united with Randy. Foster, a well- meaning non/believing patrol officer, takes care of them there during their long wait when they run out of food. Mary gets impatient and proposes her mother that they simply kill themselves in order to go to haven and join Randy immediately. After a couple of weeks, Sharon also loses patience, decides to do the unspeakable and follows Mary’s advice to stop her suffering; however, after shooting Mary, she is unable to take her own life afterwards, knowing that suiciders are not allowed into haeven. She confesses her act to Foster who arrests her and takes her to a local jail. Till this point, the story moves along «realist» lines, and one one can easily imagine a possible «atheist» ending: bitter and alone, deprived of her faith, Sharon realizes the horror of what she had committed, and is maybe saved by the good policeman... Here, however, events take a totally unexpected turn: in the prison cell, Rapture happens, literally, in all naivety, including bad special effects. First, deep in the night, Mary appears with two angels, and then, early in the morning, while Sharon sits in her cell, a loud trumpet blast is heard all around and anounces a series of supranatural events — prison bars fall down, etc. Escaping from the prison, 6