The Gospel According to Neo

Xel writes "Josh Burek, writer for The Christian Science Monitor and A.K.A. the guy who sits 4 cubicles from me, has written an excellent essay on religion in The Matrix: The Gospel According to Neo. Sure, this topic has been covered ad nauseum, but it's refreshing to see such a thoughful examination aimed not at geeks alone but a broader, more traditional, and more traditionally religious audience. It also has a nice little glossary at the end where even pasty-faced and vinyl-clad Matrix worshippers may find some easter eggs they didnt know."

Comments

Lawrence Fishburne Interview

[crashnbur]

I haven't read The Gospel According to Neo yet, but I've thumbed through it. (It sits on my shelf, and I'm currently involved in William Irwin's The Matrix and Philosophy -- great book!)

Switching gears... In an interview released today over at Coming Soon, Lawrence Fishburne gives a pretty detailed account of (some of) his experience with The Matrix and playing Morpheus.

What was it about the first film that struck the chord with so many people? There's a lot of things, and I think the major thing is that in crafting their story and structuring their story, the Wachowski brothers relied heavily on Greek mythology and primarily the old myths: the hero's journey, the reluctant messiah story, which is one of the oldest stories and has been with us in every culture, in every time in some way or form. And they basically put it in a modern context...

WARNING: The interview may spoil some minor plot details near the bottom -- the first six paragraphs are safe. When it gets to "Early audiences are already getting a different sense...", you might consider waiting a day or two to see the movie and then catch up on what he had to say about his character.

Re:Lawrence Fishburne Interview

[daoine]

the old myths: the hero's journey, the reluctant messiah story, which is one of the oldest stories and has been with us in every culture, in every time in some way or form. And they basically put it in a modern context... (quoting a quote is bad, I know)

I think this is a really important, well spoken point, and it might shed light on why I had a hard time getting through the CSM article.

When I read articles like this, they always seem to come across as saying "Look how Christian the [insert item of discussion] is!" But that's just the problem -- the storylines of the Matrix aren't uniquely Christian. Questioning reality, belief in a higher power, the reluctant messiah are all themes throughout almost every religion and every culture.

I suppose I feel there's a not-so-subtle difference in noting how the story lines up with what one believes and claiming that the story draws heavily from one's religion. For some reason, I felt this article was the latter...

Exclusive Matrix 2 screenshot

[fuxoft]

See exclusive MATRIX REVOLUTIONS screenshot here. :)

Re:Once again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Who said that the two are mutually exclusive? Have you read Baudrillard's Simulation and Simulacra? Do you understand the significance of a blue pill and a red pill? Have you studied Carl Jung?

Don't assume that everybody is as ignorant as you are.

What the CS Monitor is

[mnemonic_]

About the CS monitor (if you've never heard about it before, it's probably not what you think it is).

Is the paper a religious periodical?

No, it's a real newspaper published by a church -- The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Mass., USA. Everything in the Monitor is international and US news and features, except for one religious article that has appeared each day in The Home Forum section since 1908, at the request of the paper's founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

In an age of corporate conglomerates dominating news media, the Monitor combination of church ownership, a public-service mission, and commitment to covering the world (not to mention the fact that it was founded by a woman shortly after the turn of the century, when US women didn't yet have the vote!) gives the paper a uniquely independent voice in journalism.

Then if the paper's basically secular and for everybody, why is "Christian Science" in its name?

Eddy insisted, against strong opposition from some of her advisers and church officers, that the words "Christian Science" should be in the paper's name. According to one of her biographers, Robert Peel, to Eddy, "the designated title was an identification of the paper with the promise that no human situation was beyond healing or rectification if approached with sufficient understanding of man's God-given potentialities. Nor did the 'good news' of Christianity involve the prettification of bad news, but rather, its confident confrontation" (witness Monitor correspondent David Rohde's widely followed reporting in late '95 on alleged massacres by Bosnian Serb forces).

More about the CS Monitor's origin and purpose

You'd have a lot of depressed, mentally ill folks

[YllabianBitPipe]

... if somehow you were able to convince the masses there was / is no God. A lot of people simply can't imagine a life with no higher power as being positive, good, or worth living. Others who see the existence of God as keeping them in check would suddenly feel free to break all 10 commandments and enjoy it. So all these people would likely become depressed, suicidal, putting a huge burden on our healthcare system. Or, they might just go bonkers and start killing people, stealing, looting, pillaging, and practising all sorts of heathenous behaviors. Of course, once all these deluded people passed on we could get down to business, but there'd be about a hundred years of rough times. Religion has a purpose in society, even if it has none to you. Largely, it's to make an unbearable life worth living and as universal policeman. And if only for those reasons alone, I tolerate it. I just don't practice it myself.

Neo Nebo

[Black Copter Control]

From the article:

Neo: The messiah. This is Thomas Anderson's virtual name. Literally meaning "new," Neo is also referred to as the "One," which is an anagram for Neo.
Nebuchadnezzar: Morpheus's ship. This figure referenced in the Book of Daniel was the powerful king of ancient Babylon who suffered from troubling dreams. The name literally means "Nebo, protect the crown."

If Nebo later became Neo ( a reasonable linguistic morph), then Nebuchadnezzar might have meant "The one[who] protects the crown."

kinda sad

[Joe the Lesser]

How people who initially disagree with something(The Matrix) that chatises their way of life(Organized Religion) do their best to make it seem their way is actually confirmed through it.

If I had time, I could write a equally definitive argument that the Matrix is about personal spirituality and questioning authority and what other's tell you you're perceiving.

But I guess that's what art's about, and sometimes narrowminded people aren't going to change no matter what you show them.

Disappointed too

[too_bad]

If at all movie-viewers are looking for a profound message in this movie, which is first and
foremost a highly entertaining, but still just an entertainment nevertheless, one can push and
pull the plots, the names, the numbers and everything else to fit their personal beliefs.
I expected something beyond this in this article and I was deeply disappointed.

Firstly the article just touches upon other interpretations of Matrix other than
that of christianity. Secodnly there is a desparate attempt at bending and mending
the movie to make it fit into Christian dogmas. Even in this, most comments are of the
type "If you can see a way through those things and really pick out the good stuff ... any
Christian could apply those things to life and grow from it." rather than saying what the
profound connection between the movie and christianity except for Nostradamus like
interpretations of Bible which can be made to fit any situation.

I think the biggest thing the author forgot to mention was that the basic theme in itself
conveys the most non-christian message. Since the whole world that we live in is
depicted as a unreal computer program, the concept of God, the evil, good etc in this
world is completely irrelevant since its all just dreamy images. Everything a religion preaches
pales into non-entities in front of the machines who are the real masters of the human race.

Re:Once again...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's your response? You didn't even address any of my questions. Your entire argument is that you think it is stupid? I don't know why I even bothered posting.

Somewhere on this planet is intelligent life and I am dedicated to finding it.

Re:Christian symbolism

[Colonel Panic]

Didn't Christ also say he was the son of God and King of the Jews?

It's interesting that he never said either of these things about himself. Others around him said it of Him and he didn't dispute it when they did.

For example, at one point He asks his followers what people are saying about him. They give answers like "they think you're a prophet", etc. And then he asks them "Who do _you_ say I am?" and Peter answers "You're the Son of God." He didn't dispute the statement.

Just prior to His crucifixion, Pilate asks him if He is the King of the Jews and Jesus answers something to the effect "It is as you say".

thus possibly explaining to Christians that while Christ's philosophies were good, he should be viewed as a normal person who believed in himself.

Well, in a word, no. Sure while Christ was fully God and fully Man; He didn't rely on his 'God'ness while he was here on earth (that would have been cheating). But He did know who He was. He didn't tell people to belive in themselves, but that the only way out was to beleive in Him. Christian thought doesn't teach to beleive in yourself (that's the Positive Thinking crowd) but instead it teaches that the self is bankrupt and you must surrender it if you're going to get anywhere - to focus on others, not the self.

Thomas Anderson

[Anonymous Coward]

Tom Anderson was the old guy who lived next to Beavis & Butthead.

Re:My favorite Matrix "easter egg":

[mblase]

Every time that someone says "God" in the movie, Trinity (if she is present) responds as if she was being addressed. This happens at least twice.

Unfortunately, this only happens twice (in the nightclub and in the car en route to the Oracle).

Search a copy of the screenplay online sometime. Neo says "Jesus Christ, that thing's real!?" after he's debugged and Trinity doesn't react. Trinity says "Goddammit", "God damn you, Cypher!" and "Jesus, he's killing him", thereby allegedly invoking herself. There are plenty of other times characters say "God" to or around Trinity with no reaction.

It's just an interjection, that's all. Of all the supposed easter eggs, this one's clearly a coincidence.

Re:You'd have a lot of depressed, mentally ill fol

[bill_mcgonigle]

I do it because I'm afraid of the law and more importantly because looting, raping and killing is just plain wrong!

"Yes, but why is it wrong," they'll say. "Because God said so," is one answer. Another is Scalable Behaviors. Just ask youself, "what would happen if everybody ______," filling in the questionable behavior. Let's take looting, one of your examples.

What would happen if everybody looted? Well, every shop would be quickly destroyed, and it would be impossible to have shops. So, if everybody looted, commerce would crumble, and everybody would be unable to purchase what they needed. OK, put a check in the 'Bad' column next to looting - it's not a scalable behavior. Continue on down your list.

You can pretty much derive the last nine commandments, the golden rule, the sane parts of criminal law, etc. from this one simple test. You can build a society on it and you don't necessarily need a religion to keep people in order. Of course, the prerequsite for people being able to live according to this test is an educated populous, schooled in the ways of logical analysis, but we're pretty much there, and only for the first time in history.

philosophical implications

[Cally]

I just read a fascinating (but somewhat heavy going for the layperson) paper by a professor of Philosophy inspired by the Matrix - I think someone actually linked to it from a previous /. Matrix story. There are lots of similar hypotheses to the idea that we are all brains in vats (or bits in a computer simulation.) For instance, if the god-botherers are right after all and there's a big guy with a white beard and we're all just figments of his imagination, how is this different from the Matrix? What about the Wolfram cellular automata work (and other less well-known work in the same field)? What about advances in cosmology and physics?

Any pointers from /.ers to similar material received with thanks :)

See also http://www.simulation-argument.com.

i read the csm matrix story last week, it was good

[circletimessquare]

and the village voice just came out with an article in a similar vein today:

Hacking the 'Matrix' Master Code

favorite quote:

Consider the messianic thread of "The One." As much as we all like a good Christian allegory, 'The Matrix' doesn't decode like 'The Old Man and the C Drive'. When I asked Laurence Fishburne, who plays Morpheus, if he followed the first flick's philosophy, he announced he'd mused plenty in his life about "all that, you know, spiritual fucking voodoo fucking mumbo jumbo kind of shit."

lol ;-P

Re:Don't forget Eastern Religion

[noewun]

But there's also a great deal of Christian idealism in the original as well. Neo's willingness to come back to lead others to safety strikes me as different than the Buddhist leitmotif of detachment. (I'm not a practicing Buddist, so if there is a strong tradition of self-sacrifice for others as being foundational to being a good Buddhist, I'd appreciate being corrected.

The tradition of boddhisatvas in Buddhism is just this - souls who forego enlightenment to return to Earth and help others reach enlightenment. Although there are people (like me) who feel this is very much against the original teachings of Buddhism, it is a very entrenched and popular tradition.

I think

[Cyno]

the matrix was more synonymous of capitalist society than religion. Most of the population except the few that took psychedelic drugs were oblivious to the facts that they were living in a dream work constructed to make them live out their lives, working, keeping busy, but never knowing the truth.

In our society we try to make more jobs, more work, for people to do. This is so they can eat, right? Wrong. We have the technology to automate the production of food. Meaning if we put the thought, time and resources behind it we could give everyone the food they need to live without asking for money in return.

Do most people do productive jobs or are they some psychology major sitting in some marketting department thinking up new ways to get people to spend their money?

I think the message in The Matrix is society doesn't have to be a complex matrix of propoganda designed to keep us independant and greedy. Society could be anything we want to make of it.

Is it logical to raise cows so every human can eat a steak? No. But some people would rather live in a society that would destroy our environment so they could eat steak everynight, blissfully ignorant of reality.

Re:You'd have a lot of depressed, mentally ill fol

[jamesmrankinjr]

So, if everybody looted, commerce would crumble, and everybody would be unable to purchase what they needed. OK, put a check in the 'Bad' column next to looting - it's not a scalable behavior.

So why is a world where commerce crumbles bad? If you say that, you're imposing a particular set of values arbitrarily. And to decide that one value is objectively better that another requires something akin to faith.

So we all have some kind of religion. We just disagree about which one is best or most true.

Peace be with you,
-jimbo

Re:Once again...

[Mr.Intel]

Rather than over-analyzing marginal science-fiction films for deep meaning, why not spend that time actually perusing the great works of literature? Most likely it's a much better use of your time.

While great works of literature abound, they are not always relevant in today's society. The rising generation is striving for a connection to themselves, one that centuries old literature does not provide. Movies are a medium that provide such connection in a way that is engrossing to modern youth. The messages they instill may be the same ones you have already read in books, but that does not mean all people must likewise gain knowledge.

Wrong. They know they are making popular, mass-market, action films in order to make money. Anything else will be subjugated to that goal.

They why did Keanu write out his take of the profits? Why did the brothers insist on a less lucrative "R" rating? The goal for the studios may have been money, but I have a gut feeling that the Wachowskis are more dedicated to the message and art of movie making than any $$ that they will get.

Let's just not get carried away with the idea that "deep messages" are buried in these films.

Why not? That is part of the ethos of mass communication. Just because movies fail to fit into your box of meaningful artforms, does not mean there are no deep meanings. It must be pretty lonely up there on your high-horse.

Re:You'd have a lot of depressed, mentally ill fol

[bill_mcgonigle]

So why is a world where commerce crumbles bad? If you say that, you're imposing a particular set of values arbitrarily. And to decide that one value is objectively better that another requires something akin to faith.

That's true, I'm assuming the value of human life is significant. If you don't have commerce, you either don't have division of labor or you have a socialist dictatorship of some sort.

Dictatorships tend to kill lots of people just to maintain power, so we can rule that one out.

If you don't have division of labor, you don't get medicine, for example, which saves millions of lives a year. You also wind up with a polluted environment since everybody has to provide their own power, mostly by burning forests. It may have been managable with lower population levels, but not today. Unless you want to get rid of a few billion people.

Commerce has sprung up in every human civilization, even those that sought to supress it. I think there's enough evidence to say it's human nature. I guess I'm assuming civilization is a good thing. It would be ironic for someone using Slashdot and the complex set of systems that make it possible to argue against civilization, though. :)

Re:Meh, sometimes you look a little TOO deep

[frozenray]

In my opinion, Baudrillard's works, including "Simulacra and Simulation", are a fine example of the "Fashionable Nonsense" pseudoscientific postmodern writing exposed by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont in their eponymous book. Chapter 8 is devoted to Baudrillard's writings; citing from it:

"In summary, one finds in Baudrillard's works a profusion of scientific terms, used with total disregard for their meaning and, above all, in a context where they are manifestly irrelevant.
Whether or not one interprets them as metaphors, it is hard to see what role they could play, except to give an appearance of profundity to trite observations about sociology or history. Moreover, the scientific terminology is mixed up with a nonscientific vocabulary that is employed with equal sloppiness. When all is said and done, one wonders what would be left of Baudrillard's thought if the verbal veneer covering it were stripped away."

The authors back up their claims with some truly hair-raising citations from Baudrillard's works, such as this one:

"We shall not reach the destination, even if that destination is is the Last Judgment, since we are henceforth separated from it by a variable refraction hyperspace. The retroversion of history could very well be interpreted as a turbulence of this kind, due to the hastening of events which reverses and swallows up their course. This is one version of Chaos Theory - that of exponential instability and its uncontrollable effects. It accounts very well for the 'end' of history, interrupted in its linear or dialectical movement by that catastrophic singularity..." ("The Illusion of the End", 1994)

This doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me - neither as a scientific text (what's "variable refraction hyperspace"?) nor taken as a metaphor. Check out "Fashionable Nonsense" at the library and read it - you may not agree with everything they write, but it's quite an entertaining read (especially the chapter about Jacques Lacan) and it won't hurt you to read some critical commentary about some present-day luminaries (or charlatans, as one may seem fit). Sokal, by the way, is the author of the (in)famous "Social Text" hoax.

Re:Religion in the matrix? Are you serious?

[feronti]

Ahh, but isn't sin but another form of slavery? According to Christian theology, sin is what keeps man from the presence of God. If one fails to eliminate sin, i.e. receive forgiveness for it, he is thrown into the pits of Hell, to be forever tortured. Sounds like slavery to me.

Neo may not fit the picture of Christ as teacher/healer, but he certainly fits Christ as Soldier against Evil, wielding his terrible swift sword and stomping out the grapes of wrath.

Of course, I'm not really a Christian... I just sometimes like to fool them into thinking I might be:) And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar