Hey mate,
I know this is a little bit of a deviation of where we were heading but I came across this today (only 2400 years after it was written!) and was interested to see what your take on it was...
The words
The vid - kinda primary school, but explains the premise really well…
When I first read this I related it to the conditioning of children into religion by their parents as the people in the cave and the person that leaves as people who have researched/discovered alternatives… but I’m guessing you are going to have a different take.
Would love to hear everyones thoughts...
J
I was able to watch the little video yesterday and had a quick chat with Jake about it...
ReplyDeleteBrenton: watched the cave video
Brenton: i've read the allegory before...
Jake: thoughts?
Brenton: you said the guy leaving the cave was like someone free from religion?
Jake: yeh
Jake: that was the first thing that came to my head
Jake: the second thing was the matrix :P
Brenton: hahah
Brenton: well you probably wont like my take on it..
Jake: still wanna hear it though...
Brenton: well for me, the chains are like sin in our lives, the guy freeing you from the chains is God and Jesus is like the sun, or the SON working with the Father.
Brenton: Being an allegory means its not a perfect analogy
Jake: yeh i get it
Brenton: but I thought it was pretty close
Brenton: CS Lewis once wrote "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
Brenton: He also wrote a book called the Great Divorce that apparently is very similar to the Allegory of the Cave.
Brenton: response?
Jake: dunno if it really fits...
Jake: because what is the world outside of the cave?
Brenton: the world as God truly intended it to be
Brenton: walking in relationship with Him
Jake: and the people in the cave are unbelievers?
Brenton: the cave is the world before your relationship with him
Brenton: and also like when the man that walks back into the cave from the outside world. I'd relate that to someone who knows God but is trying to live a life a part from him.
Brenton: make sense?
Jake: yeh i definitely didnt see it like that...
Brenton: what do you think?
Jake: well theres no wrong answer...
Jake: i dont agree but that was inevitable :P
So glad you two are able to carry on this conversation without sacrificing your relationship. In was seems a very strident world, a dialogue carried out without rancor is refreshing. By the way might I recommend,
ReplyDelete"Not The Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist" by David Schmelzer
It might be useful in examining the "cave" many professing believers and nonbelievers find themselves in.
This is very interesting. I agree with you Doug, it's great to see these sorts of conversations being had between brothers, and the ability to agree to disagree without sacrificing a relationship.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Jake's blog hits quite close to home for me. I was brought up in a christian home also, along with my three siblings. Now that we are all young adults we have all made our own ways in our own lives. My sister converted to Islam 6 years ago. My youngest brother claims to be an athiest, and my older brother calls himself a "non-practicing christian".
When I watched Plato's Cave I got a slightly different idea about it's meaning. I see the people in the cave as children who are brought up in the ways of christianity. The people behind the screen are christians themselves, like parents, relatives friends and so on. They are projecting into the children's lives parts of God and their own experiences of Him. That is all the children have to go on until a point in each of their lives, where they need to make the decision for themselves as to which road they are going to walk.
I think this is a point we all come to at one time or another... it's different for everyone. Parents can only show us so much of God, but there will always come a time when we need to break free from what we have been "conditioned" to believe, and find God (whatever that may look like for different people) for ourselves.
For me that has meant making the decision to live a Christ-like life, and rely on the Grace that God has gifted to me through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. For others this may look very different.
If we decide to live outside the cave and experience the full joy of God's love for us which is received for free, or go back into the cave and choose a different way of living, not one of us is free to judge. Love instead.