Religion in Happy Feet!

A week ago we watched a part of the movie Happy Feet in my religious studies class. The movie is about a penguin named Mumble. Mumble can't sing, but he is able to tap dance. The colony kicks him out of the community, because they think his inability to sing is the reason why there is a scarcity of fish. On his journey, Mumble uses his tap dancing skills to get his colony noticed by humans. This allows the colony to get more fish, because the fishermen will stop fishing there. With this gesture, the colony accepts Mumble back into the community. (Here's more information about the movie!)

Afterwards, we connected the movie to religion two different ways. One concept is that Mumble is a prophet of sort. What the colony did to him was similar to what happened to other prophets in other religions. They were exiled from a group for their beliefs, but they were allowed to go back to their communities after they were able to show evidence for the validity of their beliefs. Another way we connected the movie to religion is the sense of the importance of community. In most religions, people cherish the sense of community that they create with others who believe in the same things that they believe in.

I think that this sense of community being in most religions is very interesting. People are always drawn to be a part of groups that share the same beliefs that they do. This is the same with many religions. This gets me thinking about why this sense of community in religion is so important. Is it because people like to know that other people have the same beliefs that they have and that they aren't crazy? Is it because they feel a greater power by being in a large group than by being alone? Are there other benefits to practicing religion in a large group of people?

After writing this blog, I actually found an article that answers this question about community. HERE IT IS.