Persepolis

I must admit, I’m not a great fan of religion. Any religion. Not just that I have no faith, but also no faith in faith.

The cartoon Persepolis is both an autobiography and historical narrative in cartoon form, by Marjane Satrapi. In a series of flashbacks, it tells the story of Marjane growing up in the backdrop of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

The revolution, although seemed like a hopeful moment at first, turned out to be a nightmare for Tehran’s intelligentsia. It was even more repressive than the Shahs before.

As it is common amongst all who adopt a holier-than-thou attitude, the hypocrisy that often accompanies that attitude is wonderfully highlighted in the scene where police ordered Marjane to stop running, because running moves her posterior in a way they thought was “obscene”.

Her response was to yell at the officers in no uncertain terms, to stop starring at her butt. Gotta respect the lady. And of course, this is not the only instance of hypocrisy in this film.

There is also an unhealthy amount of stereotyping going on in the film. Marjane’s headscarf seemed to have caused some anxiety at the French airport. Viennese Catholic nuns called her all sorts of names, to which she responded with a rhetorical question that got her kicked out of her accommodation. Unfortunately, that won’t be too far from the truth.

Why am I not fond of faith?

To have faith, is to accept something as fully justified even though there is little or no justification for it (paradoxical, I know). It is by its very nature and definition, blind and unquestioning; and for some reason people are being brought up thinking its a good thing.

When actions don’t need any more justification than the words of a higher authority, whether priests or uztaz; king or president, we become effectively mindless drones. As Voltaire would put it:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

On RichardDawkins.net’s forums, there is a list of all the deities ever worshipped by humans. So far, the work-in-progress has compiled a list of 5495 deities. Personally, I’m just glad that its only the big three causing most of the religious strife. Imagine what the world would be like if every deity wanted to be in this popularity contest.

Blind faith comes in many guises: patriotism, loyalty, dogmatic ideologies… ect., but religion seems to be its most common and deadly manifestation. Although most practitioners are harmless, it makes the world safer for the extremists.

Just look at that river of blood…