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The Life of Pi. Discussion, Philosophy Meet-Up Group. The Life of Pi. “I’m going to tell you a story that will make you believe in God.” Pi found aspects of the major world religions appealing. Was he a Hindu Muslim Christian?
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The Life of Pi Discussion, Philosophy Meet-Up Group
The Life of Pi • “I’m going to tell you a story that will make you believe in God.” • Pi found aspects of the major world religions appealing. • Was he a Hindu Muslim Christian? • Is that really even possible? Is it possible to fully embrace each of these religions without believing and living genuine contradictions? • If they are contradictory, is it still ok to affirm the truth of each of them? • Are all religions true?
Quotes • Writer: “I didn’t know Hindus said, ‘Amen’. • Pi: “Catholic Hindus do. We get to feel guilty before hundreds of gods, instead of just one.” • Pi’s Father: “Religion is darkness.” • In response to his father’s suffering: “In the end, God didn’t save him; Western medicine did.”
Questions • Pi asks priest: “Why would God send his own son to suffer for the sins of the people?” • Priest: “Because he loves us. God made himself approachable to us humans so we could understand him. We can understand God’s son and his suffering, like we would a brother’s. • Older Pi: “That didn’t make sense. Sacrificing the innocent to atone for the sins of the guilty. What kind of love is that?But this Son; I couldn’t get him out of my head.” • Pi “If God is so perfect, and we are not, why would he want to create all this? • Priest: “All we need to know is that he loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”
Three Religions • Older Pi: “I came to faith through Hinduism, and found God’s love through Christ, but God wasn’t finished with me yet.” [He begins worshipping with the Muslims.] • “My Arabic was never very good, but the sound and feel of the words brought me closer to God.” • Pi’s father: “You only need to convert to three more religions, Pi, and you will spend your life on holidays.”
Three Religions • “You cannot follow three different religions at the same time, Piscene.” • “Why not?” • “Because believing in everything at the same time is the same as not believing anything at all.”
How Religions are different • Hinduism • Pantheistic (God is impersonal and not distinct from the world); the millions of gods are manifestations of the Ultimate but are not infinite themselves. • Islam • One God who is distinct from the world. God is an intelligent, all-powerful being who has only revealed himself as 1 person. There is no Trinity. • God does not have a Son. • Christianity • God is Trinity. One God revealed in 3 persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. • This one God is personal, infinite, holy, loving. He is distinct from the world.
Faith and Reason • Pi’s mother: “He is still finding his way.” • Pi’s father: “How can he find his way, if he doesn’t choose a path? Listen, instead of leaping from one religion to the next, why not start with reason?” • “In a few hundred years, science has taken us farther in understanding of the universe than religion has in 10,000.” • Pi’s mother: “You are right. Science can teach us more about what is out there, but not what is in here.”
Faith and Reason • Pi’s father: “I would much rather have you believe in something that I don’t agree with than to accept everything blindly. And that begins with thinking rationally. You understand? Good.” • Pi: “I would like to be baptized.” • Writer: “So you are a Muslim and a Christian.” • Pi: “And a Hindu of course.”
Faith and REason • Pi: “Why not [belong even to Judaism]? Faith is a house with many rooms.” • Writer: “But no room for doubt?” • Pi: “Plenty, on every floor. Doubt is useful. It keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it has been tested.”
The Conclusion • “The story is hard to believe, isn’t it?” • Investigators: “Thousands of meerkats on a floating carnivorous island? Bananas don’t float!” We want a story that won’t make us look like fools. A story we can all believe.” • “Without surprises, without animals or islands?” • “Yes”
The Conclusion • “Worse still, he brought the evil out of me, and I have to live with that.” • “The stories both the zebra and the sailor broke their leg. Hyena killed the zebra and orangutan. So the zebra is the sailor. The hyena is the cook, your mother is the orangutan. You are the tiger”. • “In both stories, the ship sinks, my family dies, and I survive. So which story do you prefer?” • “The one with the tiger. That is the better story.” • “And so it is with God.”
