Religious Beliefs In Life Of Pi, By Yann Martel

In Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, Piscine(Pi) Molitor is taken on an arduous journey where he not only discovers his religious beliefs, but also makes sense of himself and the world. In Pi’s youth, he meets two incredible men to whom he says impacted his life the most. Both men, ironically, were named Mr. Kumar: one a religious baker, the other an atheist biology teacher. One of the many things these two men made Pi realize was that it is okay to worship god, as much as it is okay to believe in evolution and factual evidence. But what Pi failed to understand was the agnostics, who did not pick either path but instead were undecided. After spending time with both Mr. Kumars at the Zoo, he says, “To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation” (28). In this quote, Pi is saying
Specifically, freshman year in ISTEM, we had a Principles of Engineering final. I failed to grasp the concepts of many things we learned so when the final came around, I was certain I would fail. This idea was embedded in my mind, and I figured no amount of studying would help me understand trusses or kinematics, so I chose not to study. But with one week to spare, I thought I would try to understand. I stayed after school on multiple occasions with Mr. Fitz or Mr. Melograna. I also sought help from some of my friends, and ended up discussing these topics with my sister, going page at a time through our unit packets. The highest score was a 9 and I got a 7 on the final as well as 3 college credits. I ended up doing better than more than ¾ of the students in my class, most of which I thought well exceeded my academic abilities. I then realized what putting time and effort into something can get you, and where doubting your abilities will take you. When doubting myself, I thought my success to be impossible, and therefore did not try to