Evolution and Plato's Allegory of the Cave

[Merla]

Hey all,

 

I'm writing an essay about how I believe it to be wrong to teach Creationism as Science in school (as Creationism is obviously the word of God, religion).

However, my teacher recommended me to include something from Plato's Allegory of the Cave.. I fail to come up with anything good to either quote from it, or just to draw any parallel from it. Any advices on how I can add something from the Cave into my essay?

 

Yes, this is obviously school work and if you would not like to help me out then I respect that, but please do not post anything if you are not willing to help.. I will of course not "copy-paste" replies into my essay :eek: :) But I will look into it and draw my own conclusions about it.. I just need some help with it.

 

Thank you,

 

Martina

[Tormod]

I'll give you a basic idea so you have something to work from.

 

Plato's allegory of the cave is that human beings are unable to grasp the true realities of the world. They see only the shadows of the world. The true world is a perfect one, and all the knowledge in this world is hidden from view for the human beings who live in the cave. They can only catch glimpses of it and make up theories about what they see.

 

http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/platoscave.html

 

Creationists argue that the world was created by God. Man was created in his image. We can never understand God's purpose for doing this, nor can we fathom the powers he has that enables him to do this. We can make up theories and ideas about God, but we cannot ever fully understand him.

 

The real analogy, as I see it (personal opinion), is that both stories require a leap of faith and a struggle for forbidden knowledge. The humans in the cave assume that there is a better world out there, but they cannot be sure. They can only believe so. They dare not venture into it because they fear they will be burnt by the flames covering the exit (fear of gaining knowledge). The same goes for God - as human beings we cannot understand him. We must not try to learn too much about God. Knowledge is not good for us - in fact, God thinks knowledge is something that makes human beings sinners, because it makes us be like him (as is evidenced by the eviction from Heaven after the snake tempts Eve into eating an apple from the tree of knowledge).

 

So both stories show that the search for truth is dangerous and requires that human beings break the shackles they are bound by - in Plato's cave these are real chains, in creationism these are the knowledge God hides from us, and the fear of God's wrath if we do something wrong. And in both stories those shackles are not broken, so the truth is not revealed.

[TeleMad]

I believe in Plato's story, one prisoner of the cave is freed and climbs up a slope out of the cave and finally sees the sun outside, which temporarily blinds him. I believe this is man climbing the ladder of wisdom and gaining knowledge. Then it is said that once enlightened, if a person were to return down to the cave and try to explain to the others what he has learned, that those who never left the cave would reject his nonsense and kill him.

[Tormod]

Probably a better analogy...I was sooo tired when I wrote the stuff above.

[maddog]

Merla,

 

I don't know if you in the US and if not, I don't know how schools get funding in other

countries. In the US, I feel it as inappropriate for puplic schools who get federal funds or

state funds to teach Creationism in that school. If this were a private school with private

funds from either persons or church affiliation, I see no problem. In America their is in

the Constitution of a mandate of separation of Church and State. How do you protect

freedom of Religion (or belief) if there is some enforcement to teach Creationism in a

public school. What student do as extracuricular activities should be wide open on their

time. I admit this is my opinion and in a free county I am voicing it. Good Luck on your

paper. :eek:

 

Maddog

[Merla]

I agree with you maddog (I am located in the US now, but I'm Swedish)...

 

It is the right of private/home institutions to teach what they desire. Whether we agree with what they teach or not, it does not matter, any private school should be allowed to teach any of the various forms of creationism - even if a private school teaches that the earth has only existed for 6,000 years in science class – it is their fundamental right.

 

I agree with you Tormod. "the search for truth is dangerous and requires that human beings break the shackles they are bound by - in Plato's cave these are real chains, in creationism these are the knowledge God hides from us, and the fear of God's wrath if we do something wrong. And in both stories those shackles are not broken, so the truth is not revealed."

Thanks for that great answer.That is the reason for certainly a reason for why we can never teach Creationism as science, since the truth of it can never be revealed.

[kaelcarp]

This is extremely science-centric, but...

 

You can equate those shackled to the wall with creationism. They see only shadows on the wall dancing in front of them, take that as truth, and refuse to inquire further. The one who breaks the chains and seeks out knowledge (the scientist) finds evolution. When he tries to return and tell the shackled others this, they scoff at him.