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Avatar – post 5

Avatar & Deuteronomy 7

Avatar is an interesting combination of The Matrix, Dances with Wolves, and Shrek. The Matrix because it involves a human electronically entering another world to live on a different plane; Dances with Wolves because it involves the conversion from Christianity (or some form of agnosticism) to a native religion of animism; and because it involves morphing into another being entirely and remaining that way. I’d like to focus on the Dances with Wolves aspect in this post.

In Dances with Wolves, the American soldier eats a form of communion with the natives by eating raw blood of a buffalo, he marries into the tribe, and he adopts their religion by learning about their view of the deity and adopting that view of life. The process in Avatar is even more explicit, for Jake begins the Continue reading “Avatar – post 5”

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The Matrix – Post 2

The Matrix – Chosen by Someone from Outside your World

The Matrix posits an entire world in which people think they’re living in reality but are really living in a dreamworld created by a super-intelligence. In this world, some people realize something is wrong “like a splinter in your mind,” as Morpheus tells Neo. The Matrix is all around; you can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church. “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth.” The truth that everyone is a “slave, born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or feel or taste, a prison for your mind.”

Continue reading “The Matrix – Post 2”

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The Matrix – Post 1

The Matrix – Too Complex to Pin Down

The Matrix has been studied from so many perspectives, perhaps showing how brilliant the movie is.  There’s really no telling what the beliefs of the movie’s makers are; there’s such a montage of meaning in it.  Analyzing all the underlying meaning is daunting, but that is not my goal with movies.  Because I want to edify my Christian faith when watching a movie, I’m always going to gravitate to the biblical meanings that were either intentionally or accidentally in the movie.  I believe it appears in all aspects of life even in artistic works.  I don’t contend that there are no other meanings; I just don’t see the need to go there.  Reviewing it from a biblical perspective only is still daunting.  In the Matrix are the obvious Christian messages and the not so obvious. But it’s odd for a movie to be so wrapped up into a worldview that so parallels the Christian or biblical worldview as The Matrix does.  It will take several posts to get anywhere with this movie, so here are my initial thoughts. Continue reading “The Matrix – Post 1”