The intersect between these two ideas of logic and faith is in interesting one that occurs within The Matrix. Following Neo's experience it is obvious to see that there is the big lie that exists within the world of the movie. Even before meeting Morphius, Neo knows that something is wrong with the world. However, I cannot tell if it is some sort of logical reasoning that leads to Neo to this conclusion or just a hunch based on faith. Either way though both logical reasoning and faith play important roles in Neo's journey.
It seems to me that both elements of logic and faith, though sometimes polar concepts, are used to understand the Matrix. Let us take the "jump scene" for one. Neo stands at the edge of a building about to hurl himself off trying to reach another building. He has just seen Morphius accomplish the same exact jump. However, twenty some years of his existence has told him up until this point that a jump like that would kill him. At the same time Neo has faith in Morphius...Now you would think that being the chosen one and all that Neo would make the jump. Yet, he doesn't. Now though, when you think about that logically it makes more sense. After all, no one makes their first jump.
So we have now established that there are rules that govern the Matrix. Also that there are ways to systematically break these rules. We know this because even though movie is a post-modern film, it uses a modern frame, so there has to be a way for our hero to succeed in the end. Now, let us talk about the end. In climactic battle against Agent Smith, Neo's faith in himself is what allows him to become "The One." He believed that the Matrix was a system governed by logic and rules but his faith in himself is what allowed him to break this system (and also to the extent that no one before ever could).
Now, what does this all mean for us? Using The Matrix as a model it seems that logic and faith are two different ways to approach a foreign idea. It seems to me however that they use two different frames of thinking (if anyone can remember that discussion we had from our first semester). Yet, at the same time I said at the beginning of this blog that I felt that there was a strong intercept between logic and faith. This being when you can approach an idea using both. Neo manages to accomplish this and in doing so gains some wicked powers in the Matrix. So that poses the question, what can we accomplish?
Nish,
ReplyDeleteI'd like to praise you on originality, because of all the other blogs I read before doing this, you were the only one who took it in this direction, while others focused more on reality and truth. Now onto your actual blog. I agree with you entirely. People see logic and faith as contradictory ideas, but they fail to see how they can support each other. An example of how people see them as opposing forces is religion. Many claim that scientific reasoning deteriorates faith, but from what I've seen, when perceived through the lens you explicate in your blog, logic helps reinforce faith and vice-versa. This relationship between these two ideas is based on how we use them, and you give the deal way of dong so, rather then seeing them as opposing views on a topic, we should use them as different frames of thinking so we can get the full picture of the topic in question. This way we aren't forced to a a black and white argument, but are shown all the facets of the topic and new insights are revealed.The context of the film portrayed this relationship perfectly so praise on how you did that.
This dialectic may not seem very important, but many don't recognize what you discussed and therefore miss out on new views of seemingly simple, two-sided, ordinary topics. Even the people that do realize this relationship, need a reminder every once in awhile because it is common practice for us to try to simplify things, when there are so many more levels if we look a little deeper. This blog just gave us that shovel to begin to dig a little deeper on two ideas we thought we knew were opposing.