Life of Pi (blog 3)

     While perusing the internet I found a very good question that one may ask after reading the book Life of Pi, “How can you believe in God when Western societies seem organized around science and consumerism rather than religion? And if you do choose to believe in God, how do you guard against the twin temptations of intolerance and extremism?”

     I thought that the novel answered this question in several different ways that aren’t completely visible on the surface. One would be that Pi chooses to accept religion over science by basically over accepting religion. By this I mean that he questions the primal question of religion itself- is there something greater than just us? He questions it so harshly that he searches for the answer among three separate religions. Pi never comes out with this vocally, but one could only imagine that is why he followed so many different types of faith. “All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.” With this quote I believe that Pi is trying to say that even though you might think following so many religions is insane, that is literally what might save you. In other words, being crazy can sometimes be acceptable.

     Another answer for this question could be that Pi was searching for more than science could explain. If you think about it, Pi grew up in a zoo surrounded by the ideas of biology and evolution; of course he is going to want to search for something greater, something that can’t just be broken down by equations in a textbook. I think he was searching for love.

   The second question I found asking how you could prevent the temptation of intolerance and extremism is a little bit harder to answer. In this novel, Pi always took the optimistic route like his mother and was questioning everything, constantly wanting answers to more and more. His father, on the other hand always saw things in black and white. More of a pessimist this fellow was.  Anyways Pi did not want to be like his father at all, and was upset with all the negativity that he father seemed to always present. “To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” With this, Pi knew that you couldn’t get anywhere if you didn’t have faith in something and that is the key to answering this question. He did not become an extremist in any way because he knew his father was more an extremist of doubting and he saw how far that took him.

     To conclude, that is why I believe Pi opens his heart to three different religions while being sure to not go over board and become what one might call an extremist.