Was Plato's underground den parable Plato's way of breaking it to them gently?

Question

That God[s] do/does not exist and that mankind should wake up to this fact and see the light of reason?

I can't help but see many formerly religious persons (reborn atheists)identifying with the first one to have his chains broken, dragged into the light, suffered the pain of being disabused of falsehoods he held for truth.

Answer 1

As an atheist, atheism was my passion.

In my quest, all intellectual endeavors went into E=mc^2 until I realized being conscience of one's existance is not supported by the equation E=mc^2 ...unless I could prove that matter, vacuums and anti-matter have a state of consciousness inherent in them. Failing to do so, my only conclusion was I was a fluke of the universe and had no right to be cognitive of my own existance.

I realized this cognitive awareness made me keenly aware of the present....as if it mattered somehow. But reason took over. I was part of a universe following a mathmatical formula where today is as unimportant as the days and weeks and years before.

Today is no different than a sandcastle attempting to stand against the rising tide as nothing lasts. In 10 years, most of today will be forgotten. In a 1,000 years, history might have a paragraph about the day. In 1,000,000,000,000, nothing from today will matter. We are back to zero. Nothing we do matters.

Because of the temporary nature of intelligence/cognitive awareness, the pursuit of knowledge is no more than the equivalent of masturbation….a cheap thrill which one has to give him/her self since achieving all types of knowledge doesn’t yield the same amount of pleasure. Therefore, there is no lasting difference between those we call geniuses like ourselves and those we call morons like those other people.

I found the intellectual who devotes his/her life for world peace who is no better than say a Hilter or Genghis Khan or those responsible for Japan's unit 731 or Stalin or Nero no better than the one who quits and commits suicide or the morons inbetween.

"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone telling you different is selling you something." (Princess Bride)

So let's get drunk to dull all the heartache and tears until we feel the icy embrace of death as the world moves on to to a different look at the same old stuff...not better....not worse....not cognitive of mankind attempts to feel like he/she matters.

But if you wanted more to life than just a great beer, those morons talking about today from the stand point of an eternal God might have something to say. It couldn't be any better or worse than today.

Answer 2

Somebodies been doing there research!!! Your talking about the cave and the shadows are you not? Good read! Ether way, good critical thinking stuff, but still realize man CAN'T let go of the ideal of GOD. Realize and I forget who said it, but its proven again, and again. If god doesn't exsist it would be mans frist job to create one. Does any of this really disprove god, no, does it change who he or it could be, yes, could we ever be able to grasp what he is, I hope not! Which from the time period and the perception of these fellas I got the feeling they were not trying to disprove god exsistence as much as they want'd people to start to question it. Shoot one in the past lets say 100 years (proubly less) have we been able to OPENLY debate his exsistence, these guys were spearheaders! But lets not loss sight of the fact they weren't trying to disprove a god, as much as the way people thought he should be.... good to remember that, no place for atheist in this world, whats morality without purpose?