Sydney Smith 
Denysha Taylor Plato and Aristotle have always been those great thinkers I have never really studied much about. I knew about both of them for a long time but to really say I thought about them a lot, is something I cannot say. It is hard to put into few words what these two men have done in me in just a short amount of time. The impact of their theories mixed with the impact of The Lord in my walk as of late is a very exciting and peculiar mixture. A good example of this would be to point out some of both Aristotle and Plato’s main philosophical contributions. Plato’s allegory of The Cave for instance; proving that man can only know so much until something comes along being alien in notion. The freed man saw many things that were beyond his expression. It was hard to picture and hard to explain. Aristotle acknowledged the existence of souls. He argued everything has a soul. One big exclamation point sticks out to me, though these men believed and argued different things, there is consistency within their notions and theories. The consistency lies with The Creator. Those who believe in The Lord believe there is a way to be in his presence both in body and in soul. Plato believed the end goal of true happiness, as I understand it, was to finally relieve the soul from the influence of the flesh. As followers of Jesus, that is our goal as well. To rid the soul of the sin of the flesh and eventually have eternal life in Heaven. Aristotle knew that contemplation was important, not only for man, but for the soul as well. Knowledge is freedom in a sense that it frees us from agitation and unpleasantness.
The consistencies lie in the fact we come from a creator. Man has always contemplated and believed there is something beyond this realm of time and self. There is something far greater than us at work whether we believe it to be a god or a cycle of evolution. We want to know more, we want to be free of the evils of this world and we know we have an ultimate purpose. We don’t know as much as we think we know, for instance we know nothing about what it means to be outside of the concept of time. It speeds up, slows down, stops, but is always moving no matter how we perceive it and we will be chained to it while on this earth.
These are the things Aristotle and Plato have contemplated and wondered, giving us free reign to do the same; which is why I believe they resonate with people to this day.
I hope I am on the right track with this particular assignment so if this blog is off topic I apologize.
Jessica Weeden
10:55 pm, 09.06.13
DJ, I appreciate your thoughts above. It is pretty neat how these guys from centuries ago thought many of the same things we do today and whether they intended it or not, their thoughts have a profound impact on the way we can view things spiritually.
I think the post was supposed to take one of the mentioned individuals and classify them to either Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration. Indirectly you did this though. It sounds like (sounds? reads like) you would most likely identify Plato and Aristotle with the Creation category. Your second paragraph shows the fact that there is a greater, more perfect creation and also points out the continual state of creation that exists–at least according to Plato and Aristotle. I guess you could also say that you’ve identified them with the last category. Because we reside in a “cave” and there is more out there, we need to explore and use rationality to understand that which we don’t know. According to these two, this is possible, much like how God will one day restore our understanding and bring us to a full knowledge of His workings and being.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Rachel Easley
10:55 pm, 09.08.13
Dj, this was absolute rubbish. I’m just kidding. For real though, I was so thankful (as usual) to get an insight into your heart and how these two great thinkers have molded you into the fabulous person you are. Interesting how two people who lived so long ago can create works that so powerfully shape those of us who live many years later in profound ways. I loved following along in this look at your life in the past few months. The Creator is truly the thread that weaves in the tapestries of all our lives; the common denominator that unites us. There really is so much beauty and freedom in this truth and you worded it so well: “These are the things Aristotle and Plato have contemplated and wondered, giving us free reign to do the same; which is why I believe they resonate with people to this day.”