Originally Posted by Chano
I have an 8 year old son. He read the books and he read harry potter. So far he hasn't ridden any brooms (ok maby he tried once or twice) or launched any fireballs out of his magic wand. (the following is purely my opinion and i really dont mean to offend or down anyone) You cannot in one breath say you are not sheltering your children and in the next talk about how you are censoring what they watch. As a parent our job is not to hide these things from our children our job is to educate them to know the difference between right and wrong, fiction and nonfiction. Your children are more likely to become nonbelivers if you cram religon down their throat or completely shelter them from other points of view. When they finally do hear these views (they undoubtably will eventually) they wil give them more merit because now they know someone has been hiding these things from them and there must be a reason for it.
The salem witch trials were nothing short of maddness. Not most or some of the people were innocent, all of them were. Nobody can cast spells and curses they are not real. Yes they were precived as real but before the civil war black people were procived as unhuman and lesser beings just because someone convinces you of something doesn't make it fact.
Also the matrix was deffinately not christian themed. If any religous theme could be considered (which i dont belive)Buddhisim would be far more likely.
Agent Smith=suffering (the ultamite enemy of the buddhist) the enlightened one bringing everyone out of their "sleep" to a state of enlightenment=the real world as opposed to inside the matrix. Only in the buddha's death can he reach nirvana. (only with neo's death can the people br brought out of the matrix) Just a couple of major examples i could point out quite a few more.
I am sorry, but you are wrong. As far as the witchery stuff, you can throw voodoo in there, santera, I believe that those religions/practices are more than myth or fantacy as you assume. As far as black people...different subject but my views are that the europeans spread propoganda that dark skinned people were inferior because of fear. Its another thread, and we can discuss that if needed...but there is a lot of evidence to demostrate my point. Anyway...there are curses and things of that nature... But I really don't want to go back in forth on those issues.
The Matrix however is clearly Christian, however there are also Buddhist themes.
One message is with the spoon and the kid as he met the Oracle. The kid was clearly Buddhist, however the Oracle indicated that there were many who thought they were "The One" but none where.
Neo = The One, the Messiah - saves humans from Death - He is addressed in the the 1st one as "My own personal Jesus Christ".
But there is so much Christian symbolism, you can't possibably deny it.
Morpheus =John the Baptist... told of Neo's coming and baptized him in the first movie
Seraph- the name of an angel(s) that sits next to the throne of God... You must go through them to get to God.. as Neo did with the Oracle.
The name of Naiobe’s ship, the Logos, has biblical implications as well. Logos means “word” and, in a scriptural context, refers to the Word of God. Logos means God’s creative work on earth.
Neo performs miracles as a fullfillment of prophecy...
I could go on and on...
The point is the movie is not supposed to be a exact representation of Christ; however the creators took most of their themes from Christianity, and as I mentioned they pulled from other religions wich include Buddahisim
