What is Religion?

The Life of Pi is written as a first person setting through the eyes of Pi and based off stories told by a real person. What's interesting though is during the book, the author will break the fourth wall and write as the author, talking about his experience of learning about the events that took place. We get learn about what the current Pi is like, what his house is like, how he acts and what he does, it's very cool. The author goes into detail about the religious aspects of his house, with bibles and various gods are placed around the house. It shows just how religious Pi is once he's older and I'm guessing it foreshadows what's coming.

I really love the little bits of animal knowledge that I'm learning, for instance. The reason animals kill one another and people isn't usually because they're blood thirsty savages, rather that they're scared of the unknown and don't want their area to change. An animals flight zone varies depending on how and where it was raised. Oh and he also explained something like the circus animals, when the lion tamer does something like get the lions to jump through rings. It's all about hierarchy. As long as one enters a zone first and maintains the alpha status within that zone, the animals introduced to it will remain subordinate until they feel they can obtain dominance.

It's just little things like that which I find are fun to learn about. I can tell that ideas like this are being introduced so they can be compared to how humans act. It's all the same really, we all have our little zones which are ours and once something unknown steps into said zone, we begin to panic and figure out how to get things to go back to normal. Of course, this could refer to anything and doesn't just pertain to people interacting with one another.

Further on, Pi finds himself in a Christian church and learns of god, lemme write what I found to be hilarious. Pi thinks of it as if this is what his Father would do after the lions in the zoo did something bad.

"The situation had become intolerable. Something must be done. I have decided that the only way the lions can atone for their sins is if I feed you to them."
"Yes, Father, that would be the right and logical thing to do. Give me a moment to wash up."
"Hallelujah, my son."
"Hallelujah, Father."
What a downright weird story. What a peculiar psychology.

This is how a 14 year old boy interpreted the conversation between Jesus and God, and it's downright true, the reason for Jesus taking the sins of man is a weird thing.

70 pages down, 286 pages to go.