The Allegory of the Cave

Last week in my Intro to Philosophy class my professor brought up a topic we have been discussing a lot as of late: Plato’s allegory of the cave. After a brief description of the allegory, he opened up the class for discussion/debate on our interpretations of what it meant and how the allegory applied to us. The first twenty minutes heard many detailed theories about God being the sun and the cave being sin — more or less everyone saying the exact same thing. After everyone had had their say, my professor told us to imagine for a second that our interpretation of the cave was completely wrong. He asked us to try and imagine that God, instead of being the sun outside of the cave, was actually nothing more than a shadow on the inside wall of the cave. At first, I was completely unable to comprehend what that would mean concerning my life. I had a silent panic attack as I quietly pondered the meaning of life without God. If my view of God was really just a shadow on the wall of the cave, what then would be considered the sun? This led into questions like, “Is life just an infinite cycle of caves that we are forever trying to escape?” or “Can we ever truly realize absolute truth?” etc. My professor later explained that was not his personal belief about the allegory, but only an exercise to challenge our beliefs about truth.

Anyways, it was by far the most mind-blowing class I have ever had and it definitely brought to question a lot of things that I had previously deemed as immutable. Although it was very uncomfortable to view reality from a completely different perspective, in the end, it made me realize a lot more about both myself and my faith.