This was a class discussion response in my philosophy class about religion and how I think a single book sums up my feelings on religion. Enjoy & leave feedback please!

            My mind was fluttering with ideas, contradictions, and experiences as we discussed the ever-so controversial subject of religion. The first thing that came to my mind, and continued to influence my thoughts, was the novel by Yann Martel, Life of Pi. The book integrates so many philosophies of different religions and their beliefs that it is impossible not to allow it to influence you, unless of course, you haven’t read it. The first encounter the witty protagonist, Piscene Molitor Patel, has with religion is with a devout atheist named Mr. Kumar. I firmly believe that atheism is indeed a religion because as we discussed, a religion can be anything that people’s morals, thoughts, actions, and virtues are governed and influenced by including the lack of a god, money, power, a brutal husband, and the list goes on. Mr. Kumar voiced his philosophy to Pi on atheism and why that is what he believes in an incredible passage that could make someone on the agnostic fence switch sides when he said, “There are no grounds for going beyond a scientific explanation of reality and no sound reason for believing anything but our sense experience. A clear intellect, close attention to detail and a little scientific knowledge will expose religion as superstitious bosh. God does not exist…Why tolerate darkness? Everything is here and clear, if only we look carefully.” I found this to be a profound statement due to its blunt explanation. Science governed Mr. Kumar, science was his religion and I see nothing wrong with that. Some people, like Mr. Kumar chose to live in the light, while others, who are governed by spiritual beings, choose to live in darkness and believe in light.

Pi recognized religion as a multi-faceted idea and I have no doubt that his ideas (or those of Yann Martel’s) influenced me to a great extent. He recognized that “atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak, speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them- and then they leap.” The character Pi encompassed my idea, that I expressed in the discussion, that one can be governed by several religions, just as people who do not believe in a god can be governed by multiple factors or motivators such as a combination of money, jealousy, power, etc. Pi was technically born a Hindu into his family; however, he believed quite philosophically that “we are all born like Catholics…in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God. After that meeting the matter ends for most of us. If there is a change, it is usually for the lesser rather than the greater; many people seem to lose God along life’s way. ” His first introduction to God was in the Hindu religion but he continued to make several comparisons to how Hinduism and Christianity are so closely related saying, “if you ask me how Brahman and atman relate precisely, I would say in the same way the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit relate: mysteriously.” I found it quite intriguing how Martel continued to make these connections through Pi with his eventual beliefs in not only Christianity and Hinduism, but Islam as well. 

To conclude what now seems to be a praise of the book (which I truly believe has influenced my life and I highly recommend it) I would like to raise the final theme that was not so plainly laid out in the novel, and that theme is faith. The remained of the story tells the journey of Pi aboard a small lifeboat with a fierce, yet majestic Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. In the end of this incredible story of survival, the reader is told an alternate story. It is then up to the reader to decide which story to believe, hence the theme of faith. All religions are more or less fairy tales that we choose to believe in and put our undying faith in. They are fictional stories with little or no signs of proof much like Pi’s story. One chooses to believe, and that is all that matters to them. “Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe” said the lips of Piscene Molitor Patel. Belief is the answer to what is religion.