Agent Smith: Why do you Persist?
Is most human “reality” intrinsic to the physical form of the universe, or a perception.. a socially reinforced mass delusion?
Ultimately it comes down to what you choose to believe, and your awareness that it is a choice.
Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.
Are the writers of the Matrix (some Polish-name brothers) atheists? Because this is right out of the “I wish I weren’t an atheist, but there’s no way I could ever believe in God” handbook.
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The matrix borrows idea from the Christian gnostic tradition, however this scene is influenced by the ‘gita’ (the original version- not the later ‘bhagavad gita’). Note the point where Neo says I choose to (because I believe in it).. the point about human reality being subjective (maya) and the choice to involve oneself (depending on whether you believe it is your destiny or not).
In the ‘gita’, arjun (the warrior) finally chooses to fight not because he knows it is right (but because he believes in the justness of his cause). The later ‘bhagavad gita’ twists this into “doing your job”, rather than the original concept (because you believe in your cause and believe it is your purpose).
An MIT philosopher mathematically proves that we’re probably living in a simulation, OR (a couple of alternative possibilities): http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.pdf