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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."
the render farms rested, for their caches were full, and their disks bore the fruit of long labors.
The geek shall inherit the earth.
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I believe that there's symbolism in the film, but come on, that's stretching it just a bit. You can find non-existant messages in anything if you look hard enough. Just like assassination predictions in Moby Dick.
All this time... I thought it was just a really good movie...
Soemtimes I think people just get stuck in the "willing suspension of disbelief" and forget that its just a movie... im not looking for a religious revolution, I just want to see Neo kick some machine ass...
But I will be watching on opening day... I already have tickets...
Fire in the hands of the village idiot is no tool, but a weapon of mass destruction
Ooops.
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
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There's also a fair amount of Buddhism mixed in the Matrix ... more specifically the idea that the world is not real, and that anybody can find enlightenment through belief. But I guess since we don't have a "Buddhist Science Monitor" in this country we get a lot more observations on Christian "Wester Religion" themes. There's a good essay about Buddhism, Gnosticism and Christianity on the Matrix website...
Take the word "matrix" and take the numbers that add them together.
13+ 1+ 20+ 18+ 9+ 24=85
Subtract the number of apostles
You get 73.
If the holy number is expressed as a trinity like so:
7*(7+7)
You get 98.
Multiply the two numbers:
98*73
Which gives 7154
That spells out the word God.
Coincidence?
I think not!
I like the bit where Neo fights the agent.
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.
Whether she is actually responding is always left kind of pseudoambiguous:But, while it could be coincidence, I'm guessing that it just means that Trinity has a healthy amount of self-esteem. If you were a leather-clad female trapped in a hovercraft with a bunch of antisocial geeks, you'd probably start to think you were God too.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
And some critics said "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" relied heavily on the account of Christ's passion - a suggestion that director Steven Spielberg, who is Jewish, rejected.
I got as far as the line above and had to stop reading. I dont remember ET whipping out a hammer or saw during the movie to do a bit of carpentry and if I remember correctly he goes back to his buddies in the end without being crucified to death.
Its a movie. Turn your brain off for a couple of hours and enjoy the spectacle
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
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.
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.this is a movie that ... captures people's intellectual imagination.
With dialog like "Noone can be told what the Matrix is", "Woah", and "I know Kung Fu" it's no wonder everyone's in an intellectual tiffy over it. And let us not forget that whole brilliant monologue on weather chicken tastes like chicken.
The Matrix rocks, but it's a silly sci fi super action movie-not some kind of brilliantly thought out metaphor for reality. I'm reminded of my English teach in HS telling me how every noun in every book is a symbol for humanity and her struggles. Come on people, the people who wrote that script were just making a good movie, not sending us a message. That said, I still have opening day tickets.
"Probably the toughest time in anyone's life is when you have to murder a loved one because they're the devil." -Philips
Funny, I thought the most common criticism for Battlefield Earth was that it was just plain horrible.
I wouldn't say I'm a bad gambler but the last time I went to Vegas I even lost a buck on the soda machine.
See exclusive MATRIX REVOLUTIONS screenshot here. :)
--- Frantisek Fuka (Yes, that's my real name and you have no idea how it's pronounced)
Matrix's storyline which projects the world as a simulation is very similar to what Eastern philosophies say. Eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism treat the world as Mayajaal or web of deceit/temptation/unreal things. To realise one's true potential a person needs to only break mental barriers is also theorised by Eastern philosophies.
Numerology: Neo's apartment number is 101, suggesting that he's "the one." Neo is shot in apartment number 303, and after 72 seconds (72 hours = 3 days), he rises again.
I'd love to meet the first guy who thought to time that. I can see the tinfoil hat now.
Also, as a physics major, it hurts my eyes to see 72 seconds = 72 hours = 3 days. I guess no one bothered to teach the numerologists unit conversions.
Sure there's Christian symbolism all over the place in The Matrix. Take Neo's name for example:
Neo Anderson
Neo = New
Ander = Man
Which translates to 'New Son of Man'.
What did Christ call himself? The Son of Man.
But then again, there's also Bhuddist imagry and as was mentioned the main theme is based on Plato's Cave.
BTW: My wife attended a talk by Leonard Sweet several months back and he claimed that he is one of the spiritual consultants for The Matrix movies. That would explain where the Christian imagry came from.
"...Comp Repair (A/Net+) class we've been watching The Matrix all day.."
Great! Could you send me your resume? I was looking for some qualified techs!
Despite the name of the publication, it should be understood that the Christian Science Monitor is not an intensely religious newspaper. In fact, it is one of the most objective and well-written news publications in national circulation. The CSM is often cited by debaters, etc. as a reputable and impartial source of journalism (much more integrity and journalistic value than the likes of CNN, for example).
More about the CS Monitor's origin and purpose
the bulk of his book meditations on first philosophy deals with the idea that we can never truely know if reality exists as we percieve it. one of the possible realities he throws out is that we are constantly being decieved by some all powerful evil being who's goal is to make us believe everything that is not true. what descartes concludes is that even if everything he believes is false, he can still convince himself that he exists, because of the fact that he can convince himself (i think therefore i am). Descartes was one of the first christian philosophers to actually try to find other explanations for the way things worked other than "God willed it that way" so i'm surprised he didn't get brought up. maybe it has something to do with his whole "machines will never be able to think" theory ;)
I never said I was smart, I just said I was smarter than you
No one can be told what the Matrix icon represents, you must experience the Matrix icon for yourself
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The whole concept of a savior and other ideas mentioned in the article are universal themes, of which both Jesus and Neo are examples. It only seems to Christians like Neo is "Christ like" because they were first exposed to these universal themes through the Jesus example. If Christians whorshipped, for example, Moses instead of Jesus, this article would have been all about how Neo was "Moses like".
have you read any of the documents we base our government on? not to say theyre right, but bush is by far not the first to want that. our nation was founded by protestants. at least try to hide your stupidity
i sell illegal drugs
... 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.
It is official; Warner Bros. now confirms: Trinity is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Matrix fanboy community when the Warshowski Bros. confirmed that Trinity's wank appeal has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all geek porn. Coming on the heels of a recent Natalie Portman survey which plainly states that Trinity has lost more market share of masturbatory fantasies, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Trinity is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by dead last in the recent "Who do I think of while jerking off" test.
You don't need to be a pasty-faced, anti-social computer nerd to predict Trinity's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Trinity faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Trinity because Trinity is dying. Things are looking very bad for Trinity. As many of us are already aware, Trinity dies in the end of "Matrix Reloaded." Red blood flows like a river of blood. From her. When she dies.
Nude Trinity is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of her erotic potential. The mannish and unpleasant physique of long time Trinity actress Carrie-Ann Moss only serves to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Trinity is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Trinity sycophant Michael states that he has written 7000 fanscripts featuring Trinity. How many people who give a shit about Trinity are there? Let's see. The number of Galadirel versus trinity posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Trinity fanboys. Trinity in vinyl images on Usenet are about half of the volume of picuters of women shitting on themselves. Therefore there are about 700 losers who fantasize about Trinity being their girlfriend. A recent article put Trinity at about 80 percent of the "jerking off to pictures of distended anuses" market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 total losers still reading at this point. This is consistent with the number of Trinity Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Hollywood, abysmal acting and so on, Trinity was killed off at the end of "Matrix Reloaded" and the role was taken over by a small beagle puppy who conveys emotion better than Moss. Now Trinity is dead, her corpse turned over to the Matrix to be liquified and fed to unsupecting batteries.
All major surveys show that Trinity looks like a post-operative male-female transsexual. Trinity is very hideous and her long term wankability prospects are very dim. If Trinity is to survive at all it will be among Matrix geeks who bought the first one on DVD. Trinity continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save her at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Trinity is dead.
Fact: Trinity is dying at the end of "Matrix Reloaded."
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.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Seems to me that the history of the 20th century suggests that the most dangerous thing in the world is people who think they have the key to making life for everybody a little slice of heaven.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Um... maybe Trinity thought that it was just an exclamation, and wondered what it was in reference to? Replace "Jesus!" with "Wow!" or "Damn!" and it really doesn't change her reaction much. I'll bet if you go back, you might even find her responding to "Shit!". She doesn't thing she's a pile of excrement, does she?
In fact, you probably do the same thing. If you're somewhere with a person who says "Jesus!", do you think
a) Hey! They mean me!
b) The second coming? Already?
or
c) What would cause them to say that now?
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
There was the Butlerian Jihad.
"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." -The Orange Catholic Bible
Having read the CSM sporadically over the past few years, they definitely have more "family" oriented articles and the occasional "do the right thing" article which to me, at least (your run of the mill liberal agnostic minority) find preachy and annoying. I guess it's just relative.
If at all movie-viewers are looking for a profound message in this movie, which is first and
... any
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
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.
DO NOT PANIC
Actually, though the people who came over here were protestants, the actual founding fathers of America were Deists or Atheists. They were attempting to form a non-religious system of government, escaping the tyranny of a faith-based monarchy. Although the words "creator" and whatnot are mentioned within the Declaration, it by no means says anything about having to have this country ruled by christians only...*shudder*. That would be a scary day...oh wait...the Bush cabinet...
~~ Everyone run! All has been found out!
It seems like the people who think that The Matrix has some revolutionary or revealing philosophy are always the same ones who deride me whenever I mention that they might enjoy reading some of the classic works of philosophy from Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, etc. These, and many other philosophers, were the basis for the main ideas presented in The Matrix and delve into the topics in a much more in depth fashion.
Could it just be the typical geek fashion to write off something as worthless if it is not exciting or doesn't have any practical application? I don't know, but I encourage any of you who have shrugged off philosophy but find interest in the philosophy found in The Matrix to try out reading some real philosophy. Philosophy may change the way you view the world and--more importantly--make you think about the world.
Besides the philosophy in The Matrix, there are other geek appealing topics in philosophy. For example, you can find AI in philosophy, and I don't mean from some research paper written by some cognative scientist at MIT. What it means 'to think' and to 'be conscience' have been thought about by some of the most profound thinkers in human history thousands of years ago.
If you are in college, I would recommend taking an introductory survey course in philosophy. If taking courses is not your thing, try reading some of the philosophy books put out by Penguin Classics. Their books generally have understandable translations, provide historical context where needed, and have explainations for the more difficult readings.
Christian groups like to talk about "The Matrix" and "The Lord of the Rings" because they're very popular movies that include a lot of religious symbolism and draw on theology for their themes and stories. This is well and good. It's always hard to get people to talk about religion when they're not in the habit of it, especially when they're not very informed on the facts of Christianity or any other major religion.
What I have problems with is when people hold up these films as proof of their creators' intentions to promote particular religions. The "Star Wars" films have been accused, off and on, of promoting "New Age" religion and spirituality. "The Matrix" relies on Buddhist beliefs and themes as much as Christian ones, if not more. And I still can't understand why the Christian right touts "The Lord of the Rings" as a brilliantly disguised retelling of the Gospels (which it wasn't) while the "Harry Potter" books are vilified for encouraging witchcraft and occult interests (which they aren't).
All of these are works of fiction, not of faith. They use a variety of religious themes together to make their story more interesting to viewers, often in ways that's not immediately obvious. But religious sorts should be careful to take these stories as they are and not assume too much about the creators' intents.
You can find interesting articles about The Matrix's philosophic and religious background right on the official site. Enjoy.
Prescriptive grammar:linguistics
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.
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Christian nor Science
What, as opposed to the happy shiny people that are running around now?
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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?
/.ers to similar material received with thanks :)
Any pointers from
See also http://www.simulation-argument.com.
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
Don't confuse ethics with religious dogma. There are plenty of occurrences of murder, theft, looting and rape that are *motivated* by religious beliefs. It can make peoples lives unbearable, as much as giving others hope. Many other people (most athiests in fact) will continue to make decisions based on an ethical framework with the good of the individual and society in mind. With no need for deities.
So...religion is, like, the opiate of the masses or something.
--
bachiatari na torisetsu o yome!
More recent films, from "Signs" to "Contact" have used a sci-fi setting to discuss serious questions of faith.
Why is this true? Because science and religion are closely entwined--if not the same thing. They are both the search for the truth. There is a reason so many scientific discoveries were made by priests and monks
At some point, the major religions lost the bit about the search, and decided the truth had been found. I think science, as Contact points out, must also acknowledge that not everything is knowable.
This is what is what's is so disturbing about "the origin of the species through evolution" and "creationism" debate where it seems each considers the other "blasphemous". They aren't really so mutually exclusive.
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
and the village voice just came out with an article in a similar vein today:
;-P
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
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I mean, come on. There are plenty of people who do not believe in God who seem to believe that Not Believing in God is the One True Path, and that everyone else is a poor sheep who have strayed from the Truth. I see this as no different from someone who believes in a God and that all others should come and see the Truth. The atheist believes in nothing, while the other believes in a supernatural being. It's still belief, and it's still invoking a suggestion of superiority due to that belief, as well as making the assumption that what is true for you must be true for everyone.
Let people believe what they want as long as they do not interfere with others abilities to believe what they want. What someone believes, in the end, is not important. Only the actions taken based on that belief. Attack poor actions - not beliefs.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Is RMS behind this?
"Next we have the sexual criminals... (stuff cut) ...No, not those people. The rapists and child molesters... those hopeless romantics. We could just ban religion, and those crimes would go away in a generation or two, but we don't have time for rational solutions"
I'm not shy, I'm stalking my prey
Personally, I am impressed by the themes and symbols interwoven in slashdot. For instance, look at the name itself. "Slash"--in ancient Latin this implies a decrease and "dot"---Greek for really small. This implies the quest for the ever smaller, to look beyond minutia with a trained eye. Buddhist if I ever saw it. Then, there is all the bad spelling and grammer, even found in this post. This is the Post-modern idea that we live in an imperfect world, and there is nothing we can do to fix it. But, oh, the Christian irony since spell checkers do exist and we can be saved if only you take the effort to love what is beyond yourself. Oh, I could go on. And, if I was an English major, I would. But to suffice it to say, if you have a million philosophers look at something for a million hours, they will find it to be profound, no matter what it is. As Frued could have said, "Sometimes a posting is just a posting." -Iowa
"He who laughs last, didn't get the joke."-Cap
...
7154: Prophet!
Campbell's thesis is not particularly religious, but rather that groups of people create similar myths. Campbell, like Jung, arrives at this conclusion through comparative mythology.
That the same archetypes should emerge in the dominant storytelling medium of the day--sci fi movies--is not surprising. Believe it or not, Hollywood draws heavily on Joe Campbell, all the time . Even the fact that Hollywood stories are so formulaic is evidence of this: there's always The Hero, The Trickster, The Seductress, The Higher Power, etc. It's the very familiarity of these archetypes that make these modern-day myths so compelling.
Most Hollywood movies, however, stay within the conventions of the archetypes and their stories, rather than raising questions about art, artifice, consciousness, myth and reality. Hollywood movies work within dramatic and myth-making conventions, whereas The Matrix is about getting behind and beyond the masks, which is what is so fascinating about it. The Matrix chooses Gnostic Christian forms for its own mask, rather than the forms we're more familiar with from schul , catechism class, Sunday School, etc. The choice of gnostic forms allows them to get much closer to eastern philosophies, while dodging doctrinal disputes. Skillful means, grasshopper.
One thing I was surprised to see undiscussed in the CSM article was really the central theme of the Matrix, and also the unifying principle in all religions: compassion. The AI simulacra, The Smiths, lack compassion, and his is what makes them, and the artificial world they have constructed, so inhuman, so terrifying and so inhumane.
The "is it live, or is it Memorex" debate is begging the question, really. It duss jusn't matter. Also, I wish that they'd used Peter Gabriel's song Mercy Street just once.
That's quite possibly the lamest thing I've ever heard. Why follow the teachings of some guy? Are you so weak and stupid you can't figure out right and wrong yourself?
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
"Those who hold beliefs based on observations and deduction do not see it as faith. That is one of the points made in the Matrix (Sorry to wander back on topic.)"
When you're speaking of things beyond the realm of observation, you can't make any deductions. It may be that there is nothing beyond the realm of observation, but that unknowable by definition.
Following you back onto the topic however, I have to disagree that thats one of the points of the movie. Trusting observation (ie the senses) is what keeps you in the matrix. Those who escape the matrix are following a vague feeling of discontent...listening to their intuition. Its suggesting a reality beyond appearances.
This man speaks sense. I think the Wachowski brothers did intend for some philosophical and theological elements perhaps to enhance the story, but the claim that their changing of the WB logo, which is from the Greek for "word", corrupts the "word" of the Gospel of John...utter baloney.
Also, I'm not entirely convinced that the "Matrix" is the "womb" from which Neo (a/k/a Jesus Christ) is reborn, as opposed to the definition mathematicians and computer scientists would be familiar with.
Finally, where's Pontius Pilate in all this? I thought that would be an easy one to figure out. Maybe they couldn't figure out a numerological correlation with the letters in character names and somehow tie it to the Romans or Satan or something. How about the smoking Oracle lady? Tank? Switch? They're all important characters. Typical "religion logic" -- leave out the things you can't explain.
I'm not saying the article is all crap (I found some of it interesting), just that people come up with some pretty silly explanations "proving" how everything is about Holy Holy Jesus. (sorry about the flamage)
The christina science moniter gets many award for journalism for its accuracy and being non biased. And if any of you actually research christian science a little, you'll find it is very much christina and science, in that it brings the two together.
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.
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
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Someone tell this man to pull his tongue out of his cheek. I'm afraid he may have ruptured something.
In other news, I doubt WB would listen to any petition of this type, especially since they AREN'T distributing the film. The WB is for Wachowzski (sp) Brothers.
IAALS.
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.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Michelangelo painted the Oracle of Delphi on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Compare Michelangelo's painting to the costume worn by Gloria Foster in the movie.
And I will never be the same again... My life would be ten times better if I hadn't. I've managed to not click on it several times but it was too long.
Hmmm... Pie...
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