My friends and I have squabbled about this many a time. Is it possible to look at Deus ex machina as an atheistic kind of phrase?Deus Ex Machina: Can this be viewed in an agnostic/way?
Being that it is a Latin phrase adopted for use as a description for a literary device, I see no religious implications other than the simple fact that the Latin directly translates to "God out of the machine". It doesn't mean that any time it is used, it describes a supernatural being intervening in the story. It just means that whatever was used to resolve the problem is unexpected and contrived.Deus Ex Machina: Can this be viewed in an agnostic/way?
A Deus ex Machina is a technical term to do with dramaturgy or stagecraft. It refers to any outlandish or excessive plot device. (There is a James Bond film where a villain with steel-capped teeth bites through the cables of a cablecar - everybody knows this is ridiculous, but they put up with it, because it is just a film).
The phrase probably goes back to ancient Greek theatre, where a bad dramatist would get his hero out of a tough spot by having a 'god' (Heracles or Apollo, usually) dropped into the middle of the stage by a theatrical crane (the machina) so the god could use his magical powers to save all the good guys.
There is nothing religious or atheistic about the phrase - it is just technical jargon.Deus Ex Machina: Can this be viewed in an agnostic/way?
It's a literary term that dates back to the classical Greek dramatists.
An unskilled author would write his characters into a situation he didn't know how to get them out of, and so he would invoke a supernatural resolution to his problem.
It's a theater/literary term, nothing more.
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