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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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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!
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
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.
That's Gnu/sticism, darn it!
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
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 problem with the "Buddhist Science Monitor" is that whenever someone gets a really good idea and starts to write an article, they ascend to a better plane. Earth gets all the crappy beginer Buddhists. I bet in blisstopia they have tons of great insites about the Matrix.
"Probably the toughest time in anyone's life is when you have to murder a loved one because they're the devil." -Philips
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
He's not pushing or enforcing any Christian reading of the film or saying that the Christian viewing of the film is the only one.
The anti-salmon
... 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."
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
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.
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.
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
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.