Leonardo DiCaprio stars as one such extraction artist named Dominic Cobb. Hired by Saito (Ken Watanbe) to plant an idea into the mind of his business rival, Cobb assembles a team of specialists to aid him, which includes Ariadne (Ellen Page). However, Cobb's past haunts him, which derails the mission time and time again.
The fantastic storyline and action scenes aside, on this blog, I want to talk about philosophical issues based on the movie. Don't get me wrong, I think any relation to Christianity based on the movie is probably unintenional (unlike Chronicles of Narnia), but I just want to expound on it.
It's still not real!
I heard once that dreams reveal our heart's desire. For Cobb, it was his guilt of indirectly causing his wife's death that pushes him to a desire to be punished. Until he is forced to confront his fears by Ariadne, Cob cannot rid of his guilt and truly be free. In fact, he seemingly wants it as he sedates himself to revisit his wife.
However, as Ariadne points out, no matter how figment of the dream resembles his wife, it's still not his wife. Like the people who willingly sedated themselves in Africa as shown in the film, he was living in a virtual world.
And an aged African man in the movie says, "Who are we to say otherwise (whether the dream world is real or not)?" But that misses the point. It implies that truth is not important, but comfort is.
But as Christians, we must be honest truth-seekers. After Jesus proclaimed that He was the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). We should not be afraid of the truth, if we really worship Jesus. And we must be honest, not matter how uncomfortable it makes us feelm regardless if it concerns evolutionary biology, the historicity of the New Testament, or even in examining our own lives.
For if we based on our comfort on a lie, what if it all falls apart? We have based our lives on a lie?
The idea of planting ideas?
Inception feels a bit like the idea of memes as popularised (but not originated) by Professor Richard Dawkins (1976). The idea is that memes are cultural replicators, similar to genes which are inherited and passed on to descendants. However, memes also explains the problem of religions as they can be transmitted to unrelated individuals like a "virus". Like E.O. Wilson (1979), Dawkins believes that if religion (or the concept of God) can be explained via natural means, we can rationalise God away.
However memes, have some scientific problems (which I will elaborate on my science blog www.defensedefumer.wordpress.com some other time). Even if it memes can explain religion, it also applies to naturalism and atheism.
More importantly, the concept of memes fail to address an essential question: Why can't God work through natural means? Don't get be wrong, this discussion does not prove God's existance, or disproves God. But I will elaborate some other time.
The real issue is this: why invoke a creator, when nature has shown itself to be able to self-proliferate? It is a question all believers (including myself) should really address. And that is a question I plan to address in the near future.
Conclusion
Watch Inception if you have the time! I give it 90/100!
References
Dawkins, R. (1976) The Selfish Gene
Wilson, E.O. (1979) On Human Nature
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