Tron

I’ve always loved Tron. And because of that, I was really excited to see it on the syllabus for this class. That being said, Tron is an interesting departure from the other movies we’ve seen so far. In every other movie, the religious aspect fit the dystopic nature of the film. Indeed, religion was often a part of the “evil” technocratic society.

But not in Tron. In Tron, the “religion” of the computer world revolves around the users. To the programs, the users are a metaphysical group that guide their every action, telling them what to do, what’s good, and what’s evil. This marks an obvious departure, since the programs that do not leave their users are the protagonists, and the ones that leave their users, cease being religious, are the evil.

So I suppose Tron makes clear its view that atheism leads to the decline of society. The only way this could be seen to fit with the rest is with the thesis that only real, meaningful religion that is personal (as nothing can be more personal than each person having a different god, like in Tron) and not co-opted by the state is beneficial.