The Matrix: Religion vs. Philosophy

Is the Matrix a Philosophical Film, not a Religious Film?

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There are good arguments against The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded being Christian or Buddhist movies, but it remains undeniable that there are powerful religious themes running throughout these films. Or is it really undeniable? The presence of such themes are the reason why many believe that these are fundamentally religious movies, even if they cannot be identified with any one particular religious tradition. Yet perhaps this conclusion is not so well founded after all.

What are these themes? One of the most important is metaphysical, questioning the very nature of reality around us. What is real rather than unreal? Where does "reality" come from, and how are we supposed to relate to it? These are central questions to many of the world's religions; although those religions tend to answer them in terms of gods and what the gods desire, in The Matrix reality for most humans is constructed by a computer system, is dependent upon that computer system, and we exist in that reality for the purpose of serving the system's needs.

Closely connected to this is the theme of knowledge vs. ignorance - or, to put it in religious language, salvation. This isn't just a matter of figuring out how we know what we know, but also how the acquisition of true knowledge leads to our release from the bonds of ignorance. In other words, knowledge of reality is not simply power, but also our salvation from that which imprisons us.

These themes are not nearly so singularly religious as they appear. They are actually representative of important philosophical currents which have been significant forces in human thinking for thousands of years, sometimes making an appearance in this or that religion but sometimes also making an appearance in this or that philosophy.

Arguably, these are themes which are quite independent of religion. The very concept of a person being deceived by powerful computers as to what is and is not real stems more from ancient and modern philosophy than from traditional religious doctrines. In many ways the character of Neo is much closer to the man released from Plato's cave than he is to Jesus or Buddha.

There, people are held in bondage and forced to stare at a wall on which the shadows of reality are projected. For those in the chains, the shadows appear to be reality, but they aren't; anyone who is able to break free and reach the outside is ridiculed if they return and try to explain things to their former comrades. There is no attempt to save people from sin or suffering; rather, just to bring them into the light of reality where they can make their own way independent of the control of others who cleverly distort the truth.

This idea was developed further in Descartes' idea about a demon who tricks us into believing falsehoods. According to Descartes, it would be impossible for us to be absolutely certain that such a demon does not exist. We also can't be certain that we aren't currently dreaming all that we experience, another thought experiment devised by Descartes to illuminate the frailty of human knowledge.

In his 1975 book Ignorance, Peter Unger discussed the possibility of an evil scientist who uses a computer to deceive our minds in an elaborate simulation. Hilary Putnam took this even further in 1981 in his book Reason, Truth, and History by describing the possibility that our brains had been taken out of our bodies and are suspended vats of chemicals. Computers, then, create the illusion that we are moving and acting in the world.

Robert Nozik, in Anarchy, State, and Utopia dispenses with the problem of isolating brains and simply postulates bodies suspended in chemicals and controlled by an "experience machine" that feeds us electrical signals and creates experiences based upon the signals it receives from our brains in return.

These issues are all a part of what it means to be human, forming the prior basis upon which religion and philosophy are ultimately based: our desire to understand the world we live in, to understand ourselves, and to find some means for living meaningful and satisfactory lives within the world. To paraphrase Trinity from the first movie, it is the question that drives us - and these are the questions that drive our lives, that drive our religions, and that drive our philosophies.

Thus, contrary to what some commentators in the press have claimed, the Matrix films are not "about religion," at least not explicitly. Instead, they are about some of the most important and fundamental questions which humanity has to ask - questions which, quite naturally, also play important roles in our religious traditions. Thus, it is much more accurate to observe that the Matrix films and religion are about many of the same things - and it is very interesting to see how these films take from both religion and philosophy in their exploration of these matters.

What is the Matrix? In the movies it is a computer-generated simulation. In our world, however, perhaps the Matrix is actually composed of all the religions and philosophies we create in order to answer the questions driving us. We ask questions in order to liberate ourselves from ignorance, but so often the answers we devise only imprison us further by narrowing our field of vision to the point where all we can see are the ideas we create, superimposed upon the world around us.

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