Vegetables are Evil

The first thing that I would like to address is a topic we briefly discussed in class on Tuesday. We were on the subject of good and evil, and Dr. Schuler said something to the effect of "a flower that has been mauled by a rabid three year old and only has a few petals left is less of a flower than one with all it's petals." He then went on to say that the perfect flower was 'good' while the imperfect one was 'evil'. If we use this kind of logic in everyday life what kind of connotations would this have? Amputees and people with disabilities are evil? Mentally handicapped persons are less human than someone with a healthy mind? Granted, we see earlier in the republic that Plato thinks that all people with terminal illness or defect should be killed or left to die, but I don't think that would go over too well in today's society.

Now that we've got that old dirty gym sock out of the way, I'd like to briefly discuss the cave. How many people have actually made it out of the cave? I know I haven't, and I really don't think I've met anyone who has made it to the surface yet. This brings into question the possibility of ever reaching the surface in our lifetime. If it possible to fully understand and see everything as a human being? I don't have an answer, but if I had to take a guess I'd say no. I think that a human's life on earth is lived completely in the cave. They spend their lives either trying to get out, or sitting dormant watching 'cartoons'. Once the human dies, their soul either goes to heaven and out of the cave, or to hell and deeper into the depths. From a christian perspective, you can even say that if you believe what he says that Jesus is the philosopher who made it out of the cave and came back to set you free. Once you die, he'll bring you with him out of the cave and into the heavens. The difference between the earth and heaven will be like the difference between shadow puppets on a wall to actually seeing the earth.

So, what did we learn this week? We're all still cave men? Amputees and people with disabilities are evil? Jesus wants to remove you from the cave? All good answers. Tune in next week for another exciting installment of "The Procrastinator!"

P.S. I commented on Lucas' blog.