Preview

The Problems of Religion as Seen Through Monty Python's Life of Brian

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3504 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Problems of Religion as Seen Through Monty Python's Life of Brian
The main teachings of many the world 's most popular religions are to spread peace, love, and kindness, yet each of these religions cannot seem to refrain from arguing, attacking, and scapegoating each other. Hardly a day goes by where one cannot turn on the news without hearing about people killing each other in the name of religion. In Israel, Palestinian terrorists suicide-bomb crowds of Israelis. In India, Hindus fight with Muslims. Such violent religious dissent is not only attributed to those of different religions, even people who follow the same religion, but of a different sect, are known to do battle with each other. The Sunni and the Shi 'ite Muslims in the Middle East are constantly at odds with each other. Although not violent, all the different sects of Christianity argue about which one is best following God. In the film Monty Python 's Life of Brian, directed by Terry Jones, nothing illustrates more how a religion can forget its true goals than the People 's Front of Judea. Their main goal is to support each other in unifying the Jews and regaining the rule of the Holy Land of Judea from the pagan Romans, but their anger towards the Romans is forgotten and redirected towards the splinter groups: the Judean People 's Front and the Judean Popular People 's front, who have identical goals but different methods. As exemplified by the warring religious factions in Monty Python 's Life of Brian, many religions in the world today are hypocritical because they obsess over trivialities and procedure and lose sight of the true goals of group 's founders, causing in them to act in a manner that contradicts the teachings of love, kindness, and respect for all human beings. Early in the film, Brian meets a group of Jews discussing how they are oppressed by the Romans. He also feels oppressed by the Romans and wants to join them but when he mistakenly asks if they are the Judean People 's Front he is met with hostility and


Cited: Allport, Gordon W. ABC 's of Scapegoating. New York: Anti-Defamation League of B 'nai B 'rith, 1983. Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2001. Harris, Sam. The End of Faith. New York: Norton & Company, 2004. The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume XIII. "The Eastern Schism" 2003. 18 Apr. 2005. Wentz, Richard E. Why People Do Bad Things in the Name of Religion. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1993.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    People from other religions fighting eachother for that they don’t share the same point of view. For example, the crusades. Crusades were a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by the pope. The catholic church wanted to restore access to Jerusalem for the Christian. Thousands of Christians, Muslims and Jews died in these wars just because they had not got the same religion.…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Appeal to Ethos and Logos, Andrew Mack’s credibility remained not well-informed, sensible, or fair since he did not provide enough knowledge of Muslims and their religion, Islam. As well as, he did not strongly attest that Islam is not a violent, but peaceful religion using statistical facts. Also, he was not fair to his opposition, because he presumed that all religions exist the same, as in they are violent and not just Islam. Which made people who are Christianity, Buddhism, and other religions feel offended. Mack wrote and publish this article for his hostile audience, because some people may agree with him, and some may disagree with him.…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout history, there has repeatedly been tension among religious groups whose beliefs and customs diverge with one another. Religious tensions in the past have resulted in many marked events, such as The Crusades, The Inquisition, and 9/11, all of which were provoked by the disrespect people had toward each other's religions beliefs . For many people, their religion acts as a moral compass for behavior and conduct in life and when violent wars occur because of clashing religious views, the purpose of religion may seem counterintuitive. When contrasting beliefs from different religions affect how people act toward each other, it becomes apparent that pride is the primary cause of the tension.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Islam vs Buddism

    • 1513 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Islam: Empire of Faith. Dir, and prod. Robert Gardner. Writ, Jonathan Grupper. Videocassete. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005.…

    • 1513 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the long, and complicated course of history, religion and the different aspects on it have been key to the way the world is today. Several people have different opinions on different cultures and populations, and how these conflicts affected, them; these people also include their own personal opinion. A couple of them, are authors, which use a made up situation, to express their opinions on the matter of religions, and the changes they have had trough time. Three stories, which are told in different countries with different beliefs, all achieve the same result, though the setting and means by which they accomplish it is unique for each story.…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Capuchin Monkeys

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Capuchins have traditionally been in the genus, Cebus Erxleben from the family Cabidae. There had been four species recognized among the capuchins, such as: Cebus albifrons, Cebus olivaceus, Cebus capucinus, and Cebus apella, all of which are a taxonomy that dominated capuchin history for an approximation of 50 years (Lynch Alfaro et al., 2014). Over the years more capuchins had been recognized as well such as, Cebus kaapori, Cebus libidinosus, Cebus nigritus, Cebus queirozi, and finally Cebus xanthosternos. In a physical sense, capuchin monkeys weigh around six to twelve pounds and live over five decades. In contrast to New World Monkeys, they have robust jaw and dental structures, large brains…

    • 1818 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Renegade Quotes

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Hypocrisy – Practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the creation of religion, there has always been a debate to whether or not religion is the main cause of conflicts throughout history. In Karen Armstrong’s book “Fields of Blood”, she argues that people use religion as an excuse for the cause of wars and ignore all other aspects. Karen Armstrong is correct. Throughout history, there were many wars and conflicts that weren’t caused by religion yet many leaders used the blame of religion to their advantage to conceal their true intentions. Wars using religion as a cover up for power is shown in the expansion of the Islamic Empire and in ISIS, while motivation from religion opposes Armstrong’s idea.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In every part of life there have been various disputes involving religion, culture, gender, class, and ethnicity that has created an endless conflict of war. And why is this? It all has to deal with human variability. It is this, in which causes such arguments take affect and create barriers between others. Communication is the only resolution to conflict; yet many argue that ignorance is the occurrence of conflict evolving many factors of tradition, power, and authority that can never be resolved. Conflict is an inevitable part of our lives that is developed through the differences in race and appearance thoughts and opinions, as well as a person’s overall identity.…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aboriginal Spirituality

    • 2639 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Clashes in belief have been the result of much blood shed, war and violence throughout history…

    • 2639 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Just War Theory

    • 2504 Words
    • 11 Pages

    [11] Dondelinger, Joseph M. "Between pacifism and jihad: just war and Christian tradition." Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 18.1-2 (2006): 193-195. ATLA Religion Database. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.…

    • 2504 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Weissberg, Robert. “The Silence Regarding the Persecution of Christians.” American Thinker. N.p. 26 Feb. 2012. Web. 2 March. 2012.…

    • 1596 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Faith. Bloodshed. War. The power of religion has been a prominent and controversial one for as long as history has been recorded. God and his will have had several different interpretations in different times and areas. As these different ideas collide and meet, the truth of already established beliefs are challenged. How do these new ideas threaten longstanding powers? New ideas introduce thoughts that provide doubt, threatening already widespread truths and beliefs by decreasing their stability and strength.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The religions, which are rooted in positive attempts, made wonderful virtues to trust in. But often time, some believe their religion is more superior than other religions. That is when violence occurs. Now the two religions can get along, but sometimes they can't.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Firt Confession

    • 2618 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Hypocrites can be the hardest people to deal with. They claim to be good people, but their actions portray them to be something else. They are obnoxious because they go around proclaiming their piety, while those…

    • 2618 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays