Aspects of Religious Dogmatism : A Re-Reading of the Movie Lakshmi Chele

We can define "dogmatism" as the philosophical attitude of those who maintain that some propositions are not merely probable, or practically certain, but unconditionally true, provided only when we agree on the meaning of their terms and are able to understand them. Religion is, in itself, a desirable thing, but no one dogma can be regarded as essential to it. Religion is clearly a state of mind. It is also clear that it is not exclusively the acceptance of certain propositions as true. It seems therefore that it may best be described as an emotion resting on a conviction of a harmony between ourselves and the universe at large. The phrase 'a true religion' is scarcely accurate, since religion is not a system of propositions, but an emotion. Yet that emotion is the result of an intellectual process. No man is justified in a religious attitude except as the result of metaphysical study. We need for religion to be able to regard the universe as good on the whole, and it does not appear that we could do this except on the basis of a general theory as to the ultimate nature of reality. On this context this paper tries to give a narrative and interplay of religious dogmatism that exist in the Bengali movie Lakshmi Chele.

Keywords:
Lakshmi Chele, dogmatism, religion, emotion