Orb: On the Movements of the Earth Episode 6 Review – Riddles from God

Are religion and science incompatible? There are many cases where specific backwards beliefs directly contradict what we’ve learned about reality, but broadly speaking, the answer is no, not necessarily. You can believe in God and still be pro-science. Badeni from Orb is a character who proves this point beautifully.

Dogmatic, fundamentalist religions will argue that modern science – such as Evolution, or Heliocentrism – is not aceptable for a true believer. Despite their frantic assertions, the majority of reasonable people in the world are still theists, meaning that a belief in God is largely compatible with science as it progresses forward. Like Badeni, you can view nature as a series of riddles from God. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the next episode of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth.

Episode 6: Move… the World

Episode Rating: 10/10

Badeni is a fascinating character. Yuuichi Nakamura is a surprisingly good voice for him, since he excels at playing arrogant or ambitious characters like Satoru Gojo. He’s a little full of himself, but I love Badeni because he’s so passionate about knowledge. He’s willing to get hurt for it time and time again. The cruel Abbot punishes his pursuit of knowledge, which by far outpaces the studies of all the other monks. Badeni’s self-confidence is not based on nothing – he is extremely intelligent and determined.

The punishment scene was a bit hard to watch, but the conversation between Badeni and the Abbot was perfect for demonstrating a certain point. We should always be allowed to ask questions and further our studies. If we stop where we are, we’ll never know how far we could have gone. Badeni is the most Christian “heretic” character we’ve seen so far – he’s not trying to upset the church at all. He just wants to solve God’s riddles. Meanwhile, the Abbot thinks all pursuit of new knowledge is bad. That’s the danger of dogmatic thinking.

The Abbot proves that religion is dangerous because it can lead to rigid thinking and denying the rights of others. But if you keep an open mind to new ideas and temper everything with good critical thinking skills, there isn’t necessarily a problem with religion. Speaking of religion, Badeni predicted the Protestant Revolution. He said that if the Catholic Church didn’t stop being so strict and hyper-controlling, it would lose its standing as the one true church. That’s exactly what happened with Martin Luther.

I hated watching the Abbot burn out Badeni’s eyes. What a sadistic sociopath he must be. Anyway, after remembering everything he went through, Badeni decided to take Orczy seriously. This could be a chance to realize his ambitions. He asked Orczy to take some observations of Mars that night. If Orczy could do that, then Badeni would agree to go with him to the hidden chest in the mountains.

I empathized with the difficulty Orczy was having looking at the night sky, since it symbolized his doubts in religion and his security in achieving heaven. Despite seeing the vivid hallucination of the eyes again, Orczy still managed to make those observations for Badeni. That took guts. I’m very happy Orczy got to see the real sky later in the episode, after the revelation that the earth and heaven are in harmony.

The last few minutes of this episode were so engrossing. Badeni’s words were truly inspirational. I appreciate that Badeni believes in God while also asserting that the earth is beautiful and that humans should seek new knowledge. It’s a reminder that Christianity can be compatible with science in any age, for anyone who isn’t an asshole.

On a different note, the explanation of the retrograde motion of planets was awesome. I’m into biology, but astronomy and physics are more difficult for me. So I appreciated the simple breakdown of why planets appear to move backward.

So far, the visuals for this anime have not been bad, but they are rather bland and unexciting. The music, on the other hand, is a different story. It’s been amazing so far. This composer knows what they’re doing. I especially loved the suspenseful music when Badeni was handling the forbidden book, as well as the inspirational music toward the end of the episode. That wraps up my thoughts for today.