The Matrix is Very Good
I recently rewatched the film, The Matrix. It had been about 20 years since I last saw it and viewing it now with older and more educated eyes, I felt I picked up on something I hadn’t seen before.
It seems to me, we all live in a matrix. It is made up of all we see and feel, even beyond our own physical senses.
From a Christian perspective, I could say, In the beginning God created the Matrix and it was very good. (An adaptation from Genesis 1, where the Heavens and the Earth is substituted by the Matrix.)
No Escape
I understand the filmmakers who wrote and directed The Matrix, showed it to their philosophical mentor Baudrillard. He disowned the film, as he said that no one can escape the matrix.
From my perspective, the Matrix is the framework of reality. It is what we all engage with, at every moment of existence.
Even when the final breath leaves our body, we still remain within the matrix. Whether we are called to Heaven or fall asleep and end up in the Underworld, we cannot leave the Matrix. Even the atoms which make up our flesh remain within it.
Baudrillard is correct. There is no escape from the Matrix. We are ‘imprisoned’ within the structure.
Seen and Unseen
It is is not a purely physical and materialistic construct, but it is both the ‘seen and unseen’ as St Paul describes it in the Epistle to the Colossians. It is both the spiritual and temporal; the Heavens and the Earth.
The Mattix and the Logos
The ‘language’ by which we perceive and interact with the Matrix is through the Logos. Logos is where we derive the term, logic. It is rationality, it is the basis of language and without it we cannot comprehend the structure of reality.
The Logos defines the edges of the structure and connects all points within it.
In Christian theology, Jesus Christ is the Logos and so through Him the structure holds together.
Colossians 1 v 17
and in him all things hold together.
Rejecting the Logos
If people choose to reject the Logos, then their life is more likely to have less than positive outcomes. If they reject the Matrix, it is suicide, either a quick death or a slow decay into an unending sleep.
The Matrix is Very Good
According to Genesis 1, this Matrix of Reality is very good.
Genesis 1 v 31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
Though it’s not perfect. The original role of humanity was to be stewards of the Earth and bring God’s love to every part of it. And thereby help bring Creation to perfection.
But by abandoning this role, we don’t jeopardise the Matrix, but instead, our place in it. Just like the descendants of Cain before the Flood.
In the next newsletter in this series, I will discuss the ‘matrix within the Matrix’. Or otherwise known as, the Internet.
David Brodeur and I talked about The Matrix in one of our podcasts. It was a friendly debate actually. I said that the film lays out the plot structure from the Life of Christ from the Gospels - baptism, working of miracles, acknowledgment of "the One", sacrificial death, overcoming the enemy, resurrection, and ascension. David made the case that the film has Gnostic themes like the duality of the soul and body, the matrix illusion and the real world. Do you see one case being stronger than the other? Or are both happening simultaneously?
Great article. Loved the bit about the language of reality.
I was just having an email conversation with someone to discuss Aeviternity; the Matrix was raised as an illustrative example. Theres definitely more to that movie than meets the eye on first viewing. Good article and looking forward to more!