Religion In Agora

At a time when religion dominated the historical landscape and was influential in every aspect of human life and determining the course of empires, the mathematician Hypatia chose to pursue and establish some fundamental philosophical and mathematical principles that govern a major part of human existence. She was responsible for many of the world’s greatest discoveries, which were obscured and hidden by the victorious agents throughout history until relatively recently when they were proved to be a rediscovery by Renaissance and contemporary scientists. “Agora”, albeit it is a historical account, is a work of art, and director Alejandro Amenábar attempts to put forth various arguments and historical interpretations in the form of themes in …show more content…
This relationship between science and religion presents itself in a most volatile fashion in “Agora”. The Christians in the film are portrayed as the apparent heralds and the self-entitled ushers of a new era of religious supremacy where the Word of God takes precedence over the law of man and science. Justifying their radical yet calculated assault on the pagans with verses from the Bible, they disregard any valid scientific observations as pure folly without stopping to analyze science’s implications in religious understanding and study. They brand science as superstition and scientists as witches and heretics, as they did with Hypatia towards the end of the movie and when they stormed the pagan temple and burned down the Library of Alexandria. “Agora” thus attempts to argue that religious persecution of science and free inquiry continues to this day. This became incessant and only exacerbated the problem when the emperor of Rome converts to Christianity during the final years of the Roman Empire. After this we see a downward spiral in the political stability of Alexandria owing largely due to the conflict between the Christians and the non-Christians turning later into a war between Christian factions. The movie portrays an era when science and religion are at extreme and oftentimes violent odds with each other, thereby creating a society of intolerance, subjugation, and violent persecution …show more content…
“Agora”, albeit it is a historical account of the last years of her life, is a work of art, and director Alejandro Amenábar attempts to put forth various arguments and historical interpretations in the form of themes in a very subtle way. Discussed in this paper are themes of the volatile relationship between science and religion, the belief that science was considered superstition, gender, religion itself, and social stratification, all of which are neatly tied into the movie’s depiction of the historically volatile and violent landscape. Although the film provides a lop-sided inaccurate historical account of her life, it is a film worth watching because it gives us a glimpse into the mind of ancient classical philosophers and mathematicians and also depicts the dynamic political stability of the times. It also depicts a woman who’s ideas become revolutionary in the later centuries to come, but fails to revolutionize the masses’ ideology in her own era, for which she meets a grim and fateful