Religious Beliefs

The novel, Life of Pi, starts off with an old man that states, "I have a story that will make you believe in God." Two closely linked ideas in the novel are storytelling and religious belief. Pi has three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Each comes with its own tales, fables that are used to spread the teachings of beliefs of that faith. Pi enjoys the richness of these stories, but also gets the sense that each story might be aspects of a greater story about love, coming from Father Martin who assured that Pi was true of Christianity.

Life of Pi also has links to stories and religious beliefs because Pi declares that both require faith on other human beings as well. Surprisingly, Pi admires atheists, for him being such a religious young man. Pi is showing that you should be believing in something no matter what it is. It is better to have faith in something than nothing at all, and that something is what gives life a purpose. Although religion can be a taboo to most people, that doesn’t mean you can't have your different beliefs than others. Pi can appreciate the atheists and their ability to believe in the absence of God without knowing about the truth of absence. To Pi, people that can't make a leap of faith in any direction are like people who can't appreciate the truth inside a fictional story.