You could hardly ask for a more auspicious week for the Pacific Northwest premiere of our new short documentary, Fire-Maker: How Humans Were Designed to Harness Fire and Transform Our Planet. Featuring the work and thought of our colleague, biologist Michael Denton, the film picks up on the theme of the top grossing movie out from Hollywood right now: The Jungle Book.

Both films are awesome in their different ways. Jungle Book is a remake of the classic Disney cartoon, in turn taken from Rudyard Kipling’s stories. I saw it yesterday with our twins, and I think even I liked it better than they did. It’s charming, exciting, scary at times, fantastic as a visual spectacle (thanks to CGI) — but with a profound thought at its heart as well.

The story centers on the man-cub Mowgli, orphaned when his father is attacked by the tiger Shere Khan. Mowgli is subsequently raised by a wolf pack, but the deadly tiger comes back looking for him. To save his son’s life, the boy’s father had pulled a branch from a campfire and burned the tiger badly in the face. All the animals, including Shere Khan, are in fear and awe of man’s manipulation of the “red flower,” fire, understanding it to be man’s unique gift. One creature, the giant orangutan King Louie, seeks control of it for himself. Without giving away the ending, I’ll say that a quest for fire figures prominently.

Wow. Fire-Maker is a perfect companion to Jungle Book, or perhaps it’s the other way around. See the trailer here for Fire-Maker:

And for Jungle Book:

With a unique charm of his own, Dr. Denton details the almost unbelievable series of circumstances, evidence of fine-tuning at every level, that make possible humanity’s sole mastery of the red flower, with all that brings with it. Is there a single feature of the technology that defines modern life that does not depend on fire? I can’t think of one:

Denton explains that, despite how commonplace it seems, fire defines life as we know it, and our mastery of it was one of the greatest turning points in human history. The documentary makes a two-pronged argument: that Earth is the only planet where fire can be harnessed, and that humans are the only creatures who are prepared to harness it.

Denton notes the conspicuous coincidence that the Earth not only allows fire to be harnessed, but is filled with materials with capacities that can be unlocked by fire. In the film, he explores many day-to-day aspects of our existence that we take wholly for granted, but which Denton believes are clues pointing us to a better understanding.

It’s the argument of the film that our planet was pre-adapted for dexterous fire-using bipeds, seeded with potential, through fire, for the evolution of civilized life. This could happen only on a planet like Earth, and only with creatures similar to us. Yes, as Jungle Book is well aware, fire can harm, kill, and destroy, but it’s also a foremost fertilizer of human creativity.

From ancient times, cultures around the world have understood as much. People have reflected on this aspect of human uniqueness by telling remarkably parallel stories of how fire was stolen from the gods, its jealous guardians, by man. Biblical tradition, in an interesting contrast, understands fire as a gift, from one creative being to another, bestowed at the conclusion of the first Sabbath.

For this reason, Jews conclude the Sabbath as we do, by lighting a multi-wicked candle and then extinguishing it in a cup of wine. The Sabbath is defined by a cessation from creative work. We resume that work, marking the separation between sacred and ordinary time, by contemplating the symbol of our creativity — fire.

Whatever the historical reality behind fire’s discovery, it defines what our other colleague Wesley Smith calls human exceptionalism. It is, in short, once again Michael Denton’s role to remind us in memorable terms how science confirms our profoundest intuitions.

More information about the premiere, including a Q&A with Denton, is here. Fire-Maker will have its Texas premiere on May 18, when the DVD will officially go on sale, a double offer packaged with its companion, The Biology of the Baroque, likewise starring Dr. Denton. There’s more to come as well. Stay tuned here.

Images: Top, Mowgli brandishes fire at Shere Khan, by John Lockwood Kipling, via Wikicommons; lower, Jungle Book movie poster, via Wikicommons.