Life Of Pi Religion Essay

The way Pi acts throughout his journey suggests that having faith is one of the most important practises to learn as it can give an individual hope. Pi has a strong connection to all his practising faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. Society is set to have many unspoken rules that we must abide by to

The Life of Pi is a book filled with many fantasy adventures that will have an excellent impact on what you may or not believe in. This novel was published in 2001 by author Yann Martel. Yann Martel is a writer who is trying to make sense of life, just like any other human being trying to deal with everyday obstacles. In this book we see that the protagonist, Piscine Molitor also known as Pi takes us through an adventure that will question our faith in religion. Pi is not pleased by only following his ancestors’ beliefs; he believes that there is much more to religion. In The life of Pi we see that Pi argues amongst his family in what he wants to believe in. His father is not at all religious and Pi has taken up religion as a hobby. Now Pi is a Hindu, Muslim and a Christian and he undergoes a tragedy, a shipwreck with his family on voyage to Canada from India. As he goes through this process it puts his faith to the test. At the time of this voyage he is a teenager exploring different beliefs and he sees nothing wrong with believing in three different religions. We can argue that there is a war between religion and science. Pi on the other hand does not argue with those of other beliefs, he calls the atheists his brethrens as well. “It was my first clue that atheist 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

Pi knows that science and research cannot fully explain the spiritual beauties he discovers throughout his life. He also knows that religion cannot substantiate scientific truth. Pi must understand the two subjects together in order to comprehend the complexity of the world.

The religious text of almost any religion promotes peace, love and equality. Religion is meant to increase morality and righteousness, but the misinterpretations of the religious texts promotes violence and dispute. It is evident that the most influential events of history had occurred because of the blood thirst wars - provoked due to religion. The multiple components of various religions has become the primary cause for war. The mere difference of religion culminated to the Crusades, the Holocaust and gave rise to terrorist militant groups such as ISIS.

Amazing things have been accomplished in the name of God. In the Life of Pi, sixteen-year old Pi survived seven months on a lifeboat with only his faith in God to guide him. Pi had always been a big believer in God. In fact, he practiced three religions, claiming that, “All religions are true.” (ch.23 pg.69). Even while stranded on a lifeboat, Pi found a way to believe and pray. This unwavering devotion was what led Pi to land and civilization after seven long months at sea.

Pi’s recollection of the Tsimtsum ship sinking horrifies the Japanese Investigators (175). Pi then asks the investigators, of the two variations of the story, which story they prefer. Pi hopes to see them truly reflect on the reasoning for their decision. When they both agree on the animal story as being their preference, Pi responds, “Thank you. And so it goes with God” (179). This, at first, is difficult to interpret. Pi lives his life as a believer of multiple religions. To Pi, the varying stories of religion all differ, but at their cores, they are the same. To Pi, God can be explained through both the Bible, and The Qur’an. Just as his story can be told with animals or with people. No one can prove one to be truer than the other, but, in the case of religion, both “stories” begin and end the same, and that is with loving

Through this ordeal, his faith is tested. His religion gives him hope and sanity and the relationship he forms with the tiger helps him through his journey. In order to survive his ordeal at sea, Pi calls upon his beliefs from a number of different religions. The religions that he relies on are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Atheism. Pi prayed three times a day thus placing his survival in God’s hands, while still using his scientific knowledge.

Pi sustains himself spiritually through this paradoxical practice of a hybrid of religions that he draws upon in his Pacific journey. During Pi’s difficult journey he found a

For some people there religion gives them hope, no person can survive without hope. Pi decided to triple his hope, he had three religions to fall back on. He lost everything the first night “Every single thing i value in life has been destroyed. And what I am allowed no explanation? I am to suffer hell without any account from heaven?”

Often beliefs are wavered during conflicts to make what one group is doing seem right like the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment that was exempt from war. Leaders in religious wars often claim a higher being justifies the war like the altering of the commandments. War over religion peddles the image of doing good for a god or gods. Religious wars are often very irrational but hate toward another religion keeps fueling the war to drag on. Most civil wars in countries are spurred by religious or cultural diversities.Due to the benefits of war, wars fought for religious reasons are likely based solely on desire for power and control. Religion has helped fuel and motivate wars and history proves this. If one desires to stop religious wars and hate, god himself must come down and stop it or it will continue. History proves that religion has helped fuel wars in many ways and the crusades justify this fact (“War Is... 5, 28, 5, 45) (Jackson, 6, 7) (“Warfare” No

Pi is a very intriguing character that has interesting characteristic to him. He loves to practise many religions and looks at the world through these view points. What if the religions he is practising go against each other and each contradicts his beliefs? The religions he practises, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, all have different rules and practises. Hindus are a polytheistic religion, Christianity believe in the trinity, while Islam believe are monotheistic and believe in the words of Muhammad. Each one has a different scripture or book that states what they must follow and what actions they are to take, so what will happen if Pi must make a decision? Which one would he follow and which one will he discard? Not knowing what to do

In the novel, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, the author used various literary elements to illustrate that faith, or belief in the intangible, varies in expression but is a constant of human life. This is seen when Pi’s family members and religious teachers got into an argument after finding out that he practices Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Pi quoted Bapu Gandhi, saying that “…‘All religions are true. I just want to love God,’ ” which resulted in an awkward silence as they stood sheepishly, “…not far from the statue of [Mahatma] Gandhi,” (69). Every person in that conversation believed in a higher power, but only Pi realized that faith could be a source of understanding rather than contention. Furthermore, the author used situational irony

Beliefs shape societies, cultures, and people’s way of life. Every single person who has ever lived has had a set of beliefs. Whether these beliefs entail monotheism, polytheism, or atheism, everyone has their own beliefs. Two of the largest groups of people to share beliefs are Christians and Muslims. Today, there are about “2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims,” accounting for over half of the world’s population (The Future of World Religions). Not only are Christians and Muslims the largest religious groups, they are also the oldest, stemming from a common emergence. Although Christians and Muslims share similar beginnings, Islam is a religion of violence and Christianity is a religion of peace and therefore is more beneficial to society.

In the words of Gandhi, “The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different”. In the story Life of Pi, Pi Patel personally experiences different aspects of four religions including Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. The author, Yann Martel promotes the concept of believing in more than one religion by exemplifying the diversities within each faith.

Every culture and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Other religious sects exist amongst distinct groups. Every religion has some form of philosophy or ideology followed by members. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. The Supreme Being exists in many names with different abilities depending on every religion. The purpose of humanity also differs from religion to religion. Members of a particular religion will always defend their religion as propagating peace and ensuring unity of the society. By extending love to other members of the religious society, followers act as ambassadors of peace to their religions. Despite all the efforts to defend depict religion as sources of peace, most wars in the world today are caused by religion. Religion is easily misinterpreted to serve the interest of people propagating in the society. It is easy to brainwash a population through religious ideologies (Richardson, 518). Brainwashing, great overreliance, and love for one’s religion create a barrier between individuals from different religions and societies. The barriers created by different religions create hatred making religion a source war and not peace within the society.