The Matrix: Out of the Shadowlands

I watched The Matrix for the first time this February. I know — I’m quite behind. However, I was never too interested in the movie, because I’d heard its premise already and knew about the various cultural tie-ins, like the red-pill blue-pill thing. And to be honest, I found it kind of cheesy, with the leather-and-sunglasses fashion show and highly over-the-top shootout scenes.

But… I still appreciated it. It was unique and highly creative. The filmography was novel, the dialogue rich, and the theme stimulating. Plus, for the Christian, the movie is ripe with food for thought.

The Matrix isn’t alone in its premise of mass deception, impossible to escape from until the outside rebel group reaches in and offers you the chance to see the truth. This is the theme of Oblivion, City of Ember, and other dystopian sci-fi stories.

Why do people relate to this? What is so fascinating to us about the idea that the world we live in could be an illusion? You’d think it would be terrifying. And to some, I’m sure it is. But there are also some of us that find that exciting. Because deep down, we’re not satisfied with this world.

“There’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind.” – Morpheus

We want the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable. And stories like The Matrix perfectly illustrate this schism in society between the red-pill-ers, those who will choose to take that step of faith and see the truth, and the blue-pill-ers, who’d rather stay comfortably deceived, happy in their Brave New World to avoid suffering.

This concept of a Matrix-like simulacrum has been around since Plato, and his famous cave. I discussed that a bit in this post. But, to reiterate, the cave metaphor portrays a society living in cave, spending its days watching the shadows on the walls, and assuming, as they know nothing different, that the 2D things they see are reality. Then one day, one man decides to get up, search out the exit, and upon emerging into the sunlight, discovers color and depth and actual reality.

Now he can’t go back. He can never see the shadows on the cave walls as reality again. He could return to the cave, inviting his friends to follow him up into reality, but he might get laughed at. Even killed, if they see him as dangerously unstable. His friends could be quite comfortable in the cave, quite satisfied with believing that the shadows are real, because to believe otherwise would challenge their comfort. The awakened man can plead and persuade, but he has not the ability to drag them out of the cave — they must come and see for themselves.

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.” – Morpheus

City of Ember quite literally illustrates the cave metaphor. In it, humans have lived underground for a couple hundred years after nuclear disaster, and the main characters know no different than electric bulbs and tyranny until they escape from the cave into the free world and see their first sunrise.

Can you see what a perfect metaphor this is for Christianity? The agnostic and the atheist often refuse to believe in God, despite the teleological, moral, cosmological, and other arguments. Why? Because to believe in God means they might have to change the way they think and go about things. A God means accountability and moral absolutes, and a responsibility to live for something beyond mere pleasure.

The Christian cannot make anyone believe in God. They can only plant the seeds. Offer the pills.

The atheist would prefer to believe that three dimensions and five senses is all that makes up reality. They follow Locke and the empiricists. (But how can you be certain that reality is only that which can be empirically observed? Did you observe that truth empirically? No, you chose to believe it intellectually and emotionally.)

“What is ‘real’? How do you define ‘real?’ If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, taste, and see then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” – Morpheus

What if technology could get to the point where a perfect illusion of reality could be created by stimulating the brain with electrical signals? That illusion would still be an illusion. Truth exists outside of our sensory perception. This truth can either be reasoned out or revealed by a Divine Source.

(Also to you writers… don’t steal that electrical-signal-illusion idea. I’m developing it into, hopefully, a novel. 😆)

The agnostic says God’s existence is unknowable — if there was a God, we’d have no way of knowing it. Immanuel Kant is known for being a leader of this philosophy. However, the agnostic must necessarily acknowledge that there is some basis for right and wrong, often portraying God as the ultimate idea of right, in order for society to function at all. But they’d rather not think too deeply about a God who might have actually written down His laws and revealed them to us, for that too requires a significant and perhaps unpleasant readjusting of behavior and worldview. And thus, the aforementioned arguments based off of design, detail, reason, cause, logic, and yes, empirical observation, are ignored.

That is the ultimate idea of the blue pill taker — the man who would rather not have his life changed. And even sadder is the man like Crypt who has seen what the world outside is like and would rather crawl back into the cave to enjoy illusion until he dies. Perhaps that was a bit of intentional foreshadowing with the name on the part of the movie writers — certainly the other names seem to lend thematic depth.

Additionally, I found it particularly of interest that the rebel city is called Zion. I don’t doubt that this was done on purpose, though whether the writers intended it as a direct reference to Christianity or more of a cultural reference, I don’t know. Still, one has to respect the symbolism.

People ask the question, if we were really living in the Matrix today, how would we know?

Well, we wouldn’t. You can’t know until someone on the outside reaches in.

And that is exactly what God has done for us. We have better than phone calls from Morpheus. We have an entire book, filled with revelation and backed by evidence both historical and logical.

The world has no idea that the machine is living off of their energy, that the aliens are using them to harvest water, that there’s more to reality than the cave. People need the rebels to reach out, to leave the notes, to pull the scales off their eyes, to show them a sunrise. It’s a daunting task. We don’t want to lose the friendship or reputation. But we have the truth and it’s life-or-death.

And for my writer friends, we have a powerful medium in which to display real light. Real goodness, real love, real struggles. Stories are a fantastic vessel for truth. Just look at The Matrix and all these wonderful themes that can be pulled out of it.

Write to wake people up. Write to call them out of the illusion, out of the shadowlands, and into the reality that’s more real than they thought real could be. Write to show them that this spinning mudball is temporary, and that one day we’ll be taken out of Underland to see the real sun and the real Lion.

You’ve been pulled out of the Matrix. Now it’s time to plunge back in and wake others up.

Proverbs 24: 11, ESV: Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,  and will he not repay man according to his work?

Have a wonderful week, and keep shining.

Cheers!