On religion and Spirituality in the Matrix

Something that I have been thinking on....

Throughout the Matrix there are references/images/symbols to religion and spirituality of all kinds. As has been discussed thoroughly on this site, the directors have specifically put religious and spiritual imagery and text in the story. Obviously, I am not going to start another thread about the implied religions or spiritual intent of the WB's...but I have a question regarding the characters in the movies.

At no time (at least that I can recall), do any of the characters express or display an afinity to any or the religions that are obviously represented in the movie. There are a few scenarios where a character speaks religios verbage, but it is only in the form of an exclamation....ie, "Oh, My God"..."Smith will Suffice".

In the 1st movie, when Morph is explaining to Neo what has happened he states..."it seems Fate, is not without a sense of irony." The use of the word Fate (rather than "God" or another specific being), as a generic representation of supreme power started me thinking along these lines.

If so much effort was used by the Bros to inject religious/spiritual imagery and references, why do none of the characters seem to believe in anything specific? My guess is that, by not linking a character to a specific dogma or set of beliefs, the Bros do not run the risk of having the movie linked to that particular sect.

However, the overwhelming religious tones of the movie combined with the characters complete lack of reference to any religion seems, perhaps, too deliberate to be coincidence. I can't help wondering if I am missing something here.

I would appreciate comments/criticism....

Originally posted by bLindsAge

If so much effort was used by the Bros to inject religious/spiritual imagery and references, why do none of the characters seem to believe in anything specific? My guess is that, by not linking a character to a specific dogma or set of beliefs, the Bros do not run the risk of having the movie linked to that particular sect.



Hi there! I think the part that i kept of your quote above is your answer. I think it is THE reason why no character was linked to a specific dogma or set of beliefs.

The film was for everybody, so they they had to try to have equality in there and if any of the characters was linked to a specific dogma or set of beliefs then this wouldn't of seemed so apparent.

The only mystery to me was the fact that the real world humans lived in a place called Zion. Obviously this links to one religion, also the cross on Neo at the end.

Regardless of this, (which doesn't really bother me anyway) i think the overall intent with what we are talking about here was to balance eastern and western beliefs and ideas.

I've just been checking out the symbols for the matrix code aswell and this was also a combination of eastern and western symbols, so to a degree, this backs up what i said about balance.

Hope this helps you.