Blog #3

Coming out the cave has two interpretations, one is being enlighten and coming out to a beautiful reality as Socrates mentioned. The other is as seen in the movie The Matrix; humans coming out into a dystopian reality, horrible to live in. We can all agree that seeing the truth is better than being exposed to a lie, but the truth sometimes can be awful. There are many who prefer to not know, and claim that ignorance is bliss. When it comes to finding out an ugly truth, I can honestly say that is preferable to want to live with ignorance and not know. However, by denying ourselves the truth we just give in into a false reality full of deception and lies because it pleases us. I like to resist the given and try to seek the truth, no matter how terrible and ugly the truth will be.

            Plato’s theory and The Matrix are total opposites. One has a happy ending and the other does not. I would like to clarify that when Socrates says leaving the cave will give you a much better  life once your embrace it, he means according to John Chaffee’s book (The Philosophers Way) that you would feel good about yourself knowing that there is a bigger reality than humans can ever know. Being aware that there are many possibilities and that we make our own world. A life where an individual finally gets to use his mind, and think for himself. Not following others ideas and way of being. When one comes to conclude that the answers we thought were true have more answers and more possibilities, not just the one taught to us by our parents and society. Then we will come to a beautiful realization, a new world, we will wake up and be enlightened and the world we knew (the cave) will no longer exist, only our new reality which will be beautiful as Socrates mentioned.

            Though the way we view the world will be beautiful, we have not free the others from the cave. As we are forced to interact with the prisoners that do not know their in a cave, will make us once again be reminded that we were once there and will make us want to free them but at the same time be angry that they cannot see their prisoners. Since we are living together and they have not seen the light, it makes the enlightened person’s life in a way miserable because he is forced to live with people who live in a world of illusions and dreams created by others. Ridiculed if he so much as tries to explain to them that they are living in a cave. They will laugh at him and think his crazy. That being said, leaving the cave will be extraordinary but we cannot free everybody and our misery comes from living in a world where were exposed to live with unenlightened dumbasses. That is the ugly truth, to know that you’re awake but others are still sleepwalking. In a way both Plato’s Theory and The Matrix end up in a dystopian world, is just that in The Matrix is a bit worse.

            The Matrix has a sad truth once one comes out the cave, there’s barely enough hope to live in a beautiful world unless all the machines are destroyed. This is a sign I take also as if all the machines are destroyed then there will be happiness. Therefore, if all human prisoners in Plato’s theory come out of the cave, there will be happiness. We cannot know if everyone will leave the cave but we do know that if they do, the world will be a beautiful one. The Matrix I believe is a way of showing that once an individual has been enlightened and sees things more clearly he is still forced to live in a world of hell. In Plato’s theory you are free and enlightened but like I explain you are also forced to live in a world of hell though you see everything more beautifully than before. One is glad to have left the cave but sad that he cannot help others do the same. Knowing a new reality can make you depress looking at everyone else reality.   

             

Blog 2: The Allegory of the Cave through History

For many years the believe in Christianity has spread all over the world. People have the belief and faith that God exist, a God that created a world out of nothing, who is all powerful, all knowing, and perfectly good. Christians claim that the son of God name Jesus (the messiah) came to earth and died in the cross for all of the human’s sins. Christianity has caused many killings and conflicts throughout history. Forcing people into believing in their religion and having influence on thousands of lives. As years came to past many have not question themselves about their religion and just follow it, like puppets. They grew a habit of just simply accepting what they were shown and taught. To them this is the only reality they know.

Hundreds and thousands of people go to church and pray to their divine God and are thankful because their Jesus gave his life for their sins. This is their cave, Christianity is an illusion made by humans imagination. We cannot know for certain if there was a Jesus or even if a God exists. All you can ever have is faith and faith means not wanting to know what is true. To me it has become clearly that the deepest sin of the human mind is to believe in things without evidence. People have got so used to living a life of illusion and dreams created by others. They are so blind to all else around them and whenever you try to enlighten them, they are frightened and get angry because they belief that we who have already seen the light and been out of the cave are crazy.

Plato mention that once we have seen the light and have left the cave, we will be enlighten and see the truth. We will feel pity for those who are still in the cave and don’t know any better. Not only will we be happy that we see the light instead of darkness but we will try to eagerly teach others and show them the path. As Plato once said “the true Philosopher would seek to escape this cave and make others aware of it”. As much as I try as the Philosopher I have become to enlighten others, it seems hopeless. I have learned that truth cannot be told but can only be experienced. As much as I dislike Christianity and have the belief that it’s full of shit, I cannot know for certain if it truly is false. As Socrates (very well-known Philosopher) long ago said ‘the only thing we know is we don’t really know”. To say that Christianity is the right religion to follow one must first have had a Philosophical encounter and study all types of religion and examine what seems more reasonable. If one does not live an examined life, you will always remain a follower and all your beliefs will be only influences by other people. One must follow the path of a Philosopher and study it all to build well constructed beliefs.

Summary of "The Allegory of the Cave"

The Allegory of the cave is Plato’s theory about the world we live in. It is a cave where humans are prisoners; they don’t know they are prisoners. They only see the shadows on the wall and that’s how they perceive reality and are not aware that there is a bigger reality than they can ever know.  Humans are imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive by sight only, for them the cave is the only reality they know. Plato goes further by pointing out what would happen if one of these prisoners was to come out of the cave and be shown the light or be enlighten to the truth. Being able to see the “real world”. The person would most likely be frightened and will want to immediately return back to the cave. Being that the cave is what he is familiar with. Many however would accept the truth and embrace it, and finally see the world for what it truly is. They will realize that the life they live was false and full of deception.

They will begin to understand the truth and feel pity for those still living inside the cave. The enlighten person would seek to free the others from darkness and show them the light. However many in the cave would most likely laugh at him and will refuse to acknowledge any truth beyond their current existence in the cave. Therefore, truth must be experience rather than told.

The Cave and I

The Cave and I

            Plato’s allegory of the cave is a very interesting theory which I dearly agree with. Plato was a great Philosopher who lived many years ago, and his teachings live through many of us who exist today. Many will find Philosophy interesting if at some point in their lives they have question themselves things they clearly could not answer. Questions such as: Why are we here? Who created it us? Is there a God? What is the truth about religion? What is my purpose in life? Philosophy focuses on those complicated questions and as I like to say it frees your mind. The skills Philosophy develops are of a great thinker, a great writer, an outstanding debater and someone who is able to always think outside the box. Knowing that they are not limited to the options presented to them because they have it in their power to separate themselves from that situation and make their own independent choices.

            All my life I have followed the teachings and morals that my family gave me and taught me. I was influence by what they taught me to believe and wanted me to be. Amongst those strong believes is the believe in a higher power, the believe in the existence of God. Since I was an infant I was taken to church because my family was very religious and called themselves true Christians. Growing up in this society, my families society, I develop the trust to think that a God really existed and for many years I wouldn’t let anyone tell me otherwise. I was what Socrates (another great Philosopher) would have called a sleepwalker. I was blind and would not let myself out of the cave and allow myself to see anything else.For me the only reality was Christianity. However, as Socrates once said “Living the unexamined life is not worth living”. One must examine other possibilities before taking a side and truly believing in it. Through Philosophy I truly discover myself, I found that there is a bigger reality than we can ever know. Philosophy made me reason and woke up my mind by making me aware that there is no actual prove that God exist. The priest will never be able to prove to the scientist that God exist, and the scientist will never be able to prove to the priest that God does not exist. All that exist is faith and reason, one is  free to choose which one they want to live with , but keep in mind that is call faith for a reason. If you believe in something you have not seen then it is faith, I personally cannot believe in something I have not seen, therefore the believe in God has vanished. However, at the same time I have discover that in the end it will always come down to your point of view and what one believes to be right. There is no right or wrong, there's only what's right for us.
              Though I say there is only what is right for us, I have my own reasons to say why God does not exist. Christianity claims of there to be one God. One God would mean is 'monotheism' but according through Christianity tradition they speak of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Isn't that three Gods which would make it polytheism. To me there seems to be a lot of contradiction going on in Christianity. The belief that God is omnipotent(all powerful) and he is also omniscient(all knowing) and perfectly good contradicts itself. If God is all powerful, then he cannot be good. Power means evil, people that want power are not very nice but rather have bad characteristics. Also if God is all knowing then doesn't that already defeat the purpose of praying? I mean for instance, God knows my grandmother is going to die, so me praying to him would not make a difference since he has already decided that my grandmother is going to really die. In addition, if God knows it all, then do we have free will? In a way if he exist then we are under a determine present and future. We cannot decide for ourselves because predetermine destiny will always govern our lives. God has decided our lives and destiny and we are his puppets. This idea does not satisfy me and I believe we have free will. Humans have created God in their own image and is the believe in God that keeps us from being truly good because we look at a higher power someone who is said to be perfect. It diminishes our abilities and skills, lowers our full potential.
             Furthermore, Christianity also speaks of God being impassible meaning he is incapable of having emotional feelings. If he is impassible then why would he be personal, why would he care about us? seems he cannot, that is another contradiction. They say God created the world and he created everything, so if he created everything then he created evil, therefore God must also be evil. The whole idea about an existent God has these and many more contradictions that I have concluded that there is no God. If there is a God then it would only be what Philosopher Aristotle mention "the unmoved mover" saying that we cannot know who or what our God is, but that at some point something had to create us, however that something could be the big bang, perhaps matter energy we cannot know. Religion however is just human imagination. 
               The theory Aristotle place was good but I personally like the believe that we are all Gods and we have complete access to our lives and have free will. We are both the creators and creators of our world. We are the architects, we shape it, design it, and build it the way we want it. Every choice defines who we are, the future is in our mind, we are the result of everything we have thought. A man is but a product of his thoughts what he thinks he becomes.As Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once said were condemned to be free, our existence precedes our essence. As for being still in cave, I have came out of every cave I can think of and certainly do not plan on going back, because ignorance is not bliss that is bull-crap. I will continue living the examined life because is the life that is worth living.