Taylor O’Gara
Humanities: World Views
3.3.12

Essay One

In “The Cave” by the philosopher Plato, he talks about the ideas of finding the truth in life. In this historic reading, there are various examples of symbolism that help get Plato’s ideas across to the reader. Through his uses of shadows, the sun, prisoners and the cave, we are able to see how before people find the truth, they are stuck in an ignorant state of what they perceive the truth to be. The ideas of the shadows being an imitation or a reflection of what is real are interesting to me. I liked that the cave represented the place that was holding the people ignorant and enabling them from discovering the real truth. I find this very interesting because although Plato wrote “The Cave” thousands of years ago, his ideas of people just believing in what they are told still hold true today. For example, today in my experience, I know that the government feeds Americans news stories about the world, the war and about the country itself. Who knows what is actually true or what the government just wants us to believe. Although Americans don’t know the actual truth, what the government or what the news tell us, most people instantly believe. My contemporary readings are about how a man and woman that grew up in the WestBoro Baptist church finally left after realizing that what was being taught to believe their whole life was not actually true. In the article Phelps explains, “Straw men were built and destroyed Sunday after Sunday as our father taught us to hate them all. His theology was soaked with the fiery indignation of the Old Testament god, and he demanded that his minions embrace the same righteous disdain for the world of unbelievers.” (Phelps) The ideas of hating other religions, races or different types of sexuality are all taught to the Westboro members at a young age so they grow up in the belief that God hates everyone except for those who were chosen by him. This was true for Nate Phelps, until he began to question the teachings and principles of the Church. Once he was 16 he knew he had to leave and once he did he still believed that god would punish him. “I was certain that God would never give me children because of my rebellion against him. When my wife gave birth to three healthy babies, my world unraveled. Years of counseling followed as I stripped away the hateful mythology of my father and was finally freed to embrace my innate secular humanism. It is a continuous process for me as I uncover and discard assumptions and beliefs that lay buried deep in my mind.” (Phelps) Like in “The Cave” once one of the prisoners left the cave, he could not look into the light (truth) right away. It took Phelps a couple of years to realize that God would not punish him for his actions and that you did not need to hate other religions or people. Another example that relates to the Plato’s work “The Cave” is when Megan Phelps also left the WestBoro Baptist Church. She grew up “picketing Obama's inauguration, taking part in anti-gay and anti-Semitic protests, had never had a haircut, and unable to travel, was confined to the borders of the U.S.” (Daily News Reporter) Since she has left she has gotten married and is traveling around the world. She even went to the inauguration for Obama when just four years ago she was protesting it. Once she left the church, the ideas that were implanted into her mind that she thought to be true, were realized to be false. She saw that you don’t have to hate people in order to go to heaven. I think the views in this reading have helped me understand the historic reading better. In Plato’s “The Cave” you get an understanding of what he is trying to say but the two articles I read actually give you an example of how these two people were told lies their whole life and once they left the confinement of the church, they were exposed to the truth. From the historic reading