The Religious Amalgamation Dubbed The Matrix

Throughout the history of motion pictures, stories have impacted society through various means, but up until recently, these influences were usually limited to hobbies and interests. With the emergence of a deep psychological thriller dubbed The Matrix, cinematic influence on religion has become quite evident. The Matrix combines allegories of religious figures such as Jesus Christ and Buddha with a quasi-enlightenment concept that appears in many of the mystical Eastern religions. This amalgamation of religious ideas creates an amazing foundation for what many members of religious communities—online communities stand out as the most prominent example—have come to refine their core religions into over the last few years. Many of these communities consider their new faiths to be simple denominations of their core beliefs, finding that their refined religion fits not only theologically but logically and scholarly with their paternal religion. I consider myself one of these philosophical persons pushing provocatively within the religious community of Christianity towards the beliefs which I find so intriguing and bold.

It is unfair to religionize a movie which was meant to be totally secular, but the screenwriters of The Matrix openly profess the movie’s ties with religion. Purposely having imbued the screenplay with parallel upon parallel, the Wakowski Brothers have rendered the obvious and the obscure into an image of humanity’s perfection. At first glance, this idealization may seem to be a plethora of praise for a simple blockbuster science-fiction movie, but there is more in The Matrix than meets the eye. The Matrix was set forth not as an action-thriller for the simple pleasure of seeing bullet casings strike the ground after falling out of a hot sub-machine gun, but as a philosophical religious allegory.

Neo, although called “The One“ throughout most of the movie, is symbolic of not one, but three persons: Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Doubting Thomas, an Apostle of Christ. As Neo represents three distinctly different ideals—Christianity, Enlightenment, and Chaos, respectively—it is easy to see why many people were confused by the proposition. But, when I began to ponder the question of why they put the three together, it began to make sense. Humanity should, according to the allusions in The Matrix and in my own personal theologies, be a blend of the three ideals, forming a balanced life and thus a life pleasing to God.