Watchmen #9
Watchmen #9
Don’t you see the futility of asking me to save a world that I no longer have any stake in?
Say there is a God. Say he did create the universe. Is he still around? Is he still at work in his creation? Or did he wind it up and leave it to run by himself while he nicked off for a beer?
Watchmen #9 features Jon and Laurie on Mars debating the future of mankind. It is up to Laurie to convince her ex-boyfriend, the near omnipotent Doctor Manhattan, to intervene on Earth and save mankind. While they discuss the future, Laurie explores her past, unearthing secrets that she had never dared to admit to herself.
Jon argues that he has no stake in the world. That he has no reason to do anything about its impending destruction. “God” states that he no longer has any reason to help mankind. That he has just as much in common with the lifeless landscape of Mars as he does in flawed humanity. Is this true? Is that how God views our world? Has he really left us to our own devices?
God is involved with creation. Not only did he create it but he continues to sustain it.
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:26-30)
God looks after the birds and the fields. He sustains them. He makes sure they are looked after. He has not abandoned them.
The best argument for God’s continued presence and action in this world is Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) God loved the world enough to send his son to earth. Jesus, in very nature God, died for our sins so we could be in a relationship with God. And he promised that he will return one day to deal with sin once and for all. These are not the actions of a God that has no stake in creation. These are not the actions of a God that no longer acts. This is a God who loves and cares for every aspect of his creation and wants his creation to return to a proper relationship with him.
Jon might have enormous power, but he’s far from God.
Pop Culture Christ 
He’s also far from detached. I think Jon cares a great deal about certain people and things on Earth, but deep down he is a monster with no moral core at all. (He pretends to think the universe is a mechanical thing– like a watch– with no place for love, charity, or the superbatural. He’s a strict materialist.) He’s too horrified to admit this to himself, so he hides behind this more-aware-than-thou veneer of his It doesn’t help that he’s never been the most socially adept boy on the block.
If he’s so disinterested in humans and their affairs, then why did he maintain a relationship with Silk Spectre in the first place? When we first meet Dr. Manhattan he’s making love to her (calously, as it turns out), and yet were supposed to believe he’s removed. He’s not removed. He’s depraved. Don’t let his smooth talk and pseudo-ataraxia fool you.