So in my recent English class, we talked about the ideas and concepts that Plato had in the reading. To put Plato’s idea in a nutshell, he basically believes that people are being misled by what they see, hear, taste, touch, and think. In addition, we are also to believe truths that may be just lies in front of our eyes. After the class had ended, I started to think about the type of caves that I have been living in and caves other people may have lived through. I thought about it over and over and decided to talk about my church cave. I decided to talk about this as my cave because I wasn’t born as a church person since my family never really went to church. As I got older, I made my own decision to start attending church to see what it’s like. After a few years of attending church, I felt like I needed to be someone different when it came to being in the presents of adults.
This is one of my biggest caves out of all the caves I may have experienced. Applying all this to Plato’s concept, I would have to say that the puppeteers that I saw in this would have to be the members of the church. Reason being is because I saw them as something different compared to what the bible is asking us to be. It seemed like no matter which church member I looked at, it seem like I couldn’t figure out what a true Christian looked like. I would look upon wises of elders to the fun-filled youth and it seemed like they didn’t demonstrate what a truthful Christian looked like. I just felt confused and lost as to what a true Christian was. So after years of attending church, I just decided to be my own Christian, yet follow the guidelines of what God wants us.
When it came to me escaping, I pretty much did it on my own after hearing how certain church members are. I mean you may it’s a bad thing to judge people before you even get to know them but I never really judged anyone until I saw the fact actually be committed or happen in front of me. The reason as to why I chose to escape the cave is again, I just didn’t feel the Christian attitude.
How I came to see the light of this situation, I saw a bunch of contradictions that went against the ideals of being Christian. The biggest contradiction that I saw at the church I went to was judging a person before knowing them yourself. When it came to seeing the light, I felt more relieved and less worried on how they saw me. I just came to the reason of just being myself and just ignore what the elders or members of the church might say about me. Unlike them, I choose not to judge someone before meeting them and just be my real self in front of friends, family, and church members.
Ok, if you want to write your essay on this topic, there are a number of angles you could take. If you want to write about what it's like to be inside that cave but not be aware of the hypocrisy or hidden agendas of others, you could use the movie "Memento"-- though not about religion per se, it does do a good job of portraying the kind of duplicity you're writing about here. "The Prestige" could also be good for this topic.
ReplyDeleteA challenge, though, with "Memento" is that the lead character never breaks through the illusion like you did. A similar movie on the same topic is Fellini's masterpiece "Nights of Cabiria". About love rather than religion, it depicts a woman who, albeit at the very last minute, does break through the illusion and set herself free.
Beyond that, one of the biggest principles of your story is that someone can use critical thinking and develop open-mindedness to break out of a dogmatic environment or relationship. One of the toughest but most applicable movies on this topic is "American History X", whose main character sets his very dogmatic mind free by becoming objective and critical. Or on a larger, societal level and with a happier ending, "THX-1138" is a great film too.