Life of Pi: Review From A Canadian Immigrant and Follower of Jesus Perspective

“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” ― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Life of Pi, in film and book form, is an amazing tour de force exploring the deep longings of the human heart for God, the strength of the will of man and  a secular Canadian's attempt to unite all world religions.

Life of Pi is a narrative of the story of Piscine (Pi) Molitor Patel, his life as a young boy searching for God and his survival in a shipwreck accompanied by a Bengal tiger.



I have seen the movie "The Life of Pi" twice already on the big screen. I have also read the book.The story is set in Toronto and I myself being a Torontonian (from Scarborough where the narration of most of the book took place) for the last 12 years can give some insight on the culture the book and film is trying to espouse.

Yann Martel, the Canadian author used the backdrop of shipwreck survival to preach about interfaith- Pi is a devoted Hindu, Christian, Muslim and a Kabbalah scholar rolled into one. Though the story talks about Pi rejecting his father's belief in rationalism, what Pi was able to accomplish was rationalize that all religion leads to God. The Life of Pi might go down in history as the new bible for interfaith cooperation and sad to say, confusion. I will not be surprise one day that a new culture citing this book as canon will emerge---oh wait it's already here in the form of modern secularism with a dash of spirituality.



If you have been raised by agnostic or atheist parents then this film and book is a general introduction challenging you to use your rationalism to believe there is GOD.

If you are a Christian elsewhere in the planet except Canada, then this is a glance on what western society wants to accept about God. It is a modern retelling of the blind men describing different parts of an elephant--affirming all world religions and mocking all of them at the same time.

What looks good on paper and film will never work in real life, though. What Yann Martel is preaching is it's OK to have five girlfriends simultaneously and be committed to all of them- monogamy is so old school! It's like saying to one girl I love your smile and to the other I love your cooking and to the other I like how you smell or maybe I love the beautiful babies you have produced BUT NEVER COMMITTING TO ANY OF THEM. Try this in your relationships and sooner rather than later you will find out it just won't work or how fatal these kind of arrangements can be.

Pi's faith-salad plays into what the secular world is looking for- a spirituality without commitment, confused, transient and without conviction.

Sadly in Pi's film timeline, he has chosen doubt as a philosophy in life and a faith that is immobile and void of power and fulfilment.

Moreover, I do believe that the Pi depicted in the book knew more about the love of Christ and the necessity of the incarnation than your average Christian church-goer. Read the chapters that talked about his encounter with the love of Christ and you will be moved. If he is a real person, I believe the love of God will reach out to him in the future or even before actual death so that he can be with his Beloved Jesus for eternity.

Everlasting, Unlimited Love

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13:13)

You cannot have a blog about faith, hope and love and neglect to write something about love on Valentines Day so here it goes.

The verse above seems to be a paradox concerning eternity. Love we can imagine to exist, but faith and hope? Let me expound on that further.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for...you mean there will still be faith in heaven?  When I was young, I thought that there is no use for faith in heaven because we will now see Him face to face.

And how about hope? I have been taught Jesus is our Blessed Hope and somehow in my young finite mind, all hope ends when we meet Him.

But the verse above throws a wrench into my well oiled belief. God is love and as long as He is around there will always be love. But love believes all things, hopes all things...There is always an element of hope and faith whenever there is love.

This also has something to do with God Almighty being Omnipotent. Contrary to popular belief, omnipotence is not only being all powerful...Let's go to the greek root word of Omnipotence.

Omni + Potent = All (or Full of) Potential

Can you recall potential and kinetic energy?

Potential energy is energy based on position, height or elevation. Our God is known as the Most High!

The God whom we serve is oozing of potential. The things that He has done before, that is now part of His past and no longer part of His potential. He always have something up His sleeves. That is why He will never run out of love for you now and He alone can claim to have and can give everlasting love.

Most people think that heaven and the after life with Him is a boring church service of sorts with no sense of adventure. If faith and hope are eternal, I believe there will be fresh adventures awaiting us on the other side of eternity.

Because of Daddy God's Omni+Potential heaven's atmosphere is akin to a Stanley Cup game 7 finals sudden-death situation where the best player has scored the winning goal.

Or game 7 of the NBA Finals with the score tied with 1.2 seconds left, the inbound play happening cross court, with no time left somehow a center known for dunks catches the ball half-court and managed to shoot the ball!

You get what I mean? There is so much love, faith and hope waiting for us in heaven. More adventures and partnership within Father & Sons, Inc.

Why wait for heaven when we can pull down heaven to earth right now? After all, He taught us that the Kingdom is within reach and the Kingdom is in our midst!

He Graciously Adds Love- Josh