Fwd: From Plato's Cave to Plato's Heaven...

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From: b <rrdd3939@aol.com>
To: rrdd3939 <rrdd3939@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Dec 20, 2011 4:30 pm
Subject: From Plato's Cave to Plato's Heaven...

                               Plato's Man in the Cave Series continues...

(Reading other installment recommended by not absolutely necessary; look downstairs)

                                From PLATO's CAVE to PLATO's HEAVEN

                      by Richard DePersio with Plato and Citizen Journalist

 

Scientists accept brain and mathematics: the Material (or Physical) World and the

Math. World. They reject the non-material: mind (as differentiated from brain); consciousness

(being self-aware as separate from brain); soul (the supernatural).

 

The religious believe in the Material World and the Spiritual World. Mind/Consciousness is

intimately connected to but more than brain: part of and separate from it. Further, they

contend that mind is intimately connected to soul and soul to God or a greater mind or

consciousness.

 

Note: We employ the proper terminology. Scientists accept or reject a concept while the

religious believe or disbelieve a proposition. Scientists like Michio Kaku use believe when

talking science. Are we nitpicking? Is it just semantics? The appear to almost religiously

believe in that which is proven mathematically with little or no evidence (observational and

experimental) to support it. Remember: Math is abstract. Of course. the religious have

faith, therefore, evidence isn't required. Kaku sounds like a scientific preacher. The religious

put stock in revelation, prophesy and miracles. Yet, they disbelieve in ghosts, flying

sauces, astrology, numerology, witchcraft. They don't believe in fortune tellers but believe in

prophets.

 

And, then came Plato. He's Back! And, Citizen Journalist Comsats got him. What if the

perfect definition and understanding of abstract concepts such as love, freedom and justice

existed in Heaven or in God? What if perfect geometrical forms existed there as well? When

you make a point with a pencil on paper, the point has a little bit of length, width and depth.

The same is true of a line or a triangle. We used the terms number and numeral interchange-

ably, however, in the strictest sense a number is abstract and a numeral is a representation

of a number. Scientists accept numbers and geometry.

 

Let cogitate on the previous paragraph. Perhaps, some scientists and some religious can both

agree to it. Going beyond it is a bit more tricky. We were souls in god or heaven and could

appreciate perfect forms. When we are made to inhabit a corrupt body, we lose that ability.

However, employing reason not faith some of us might come closer to apprehending it more

often than others - thruth.

 

Roger Penrose, physicist and philosopher, I would like you to meet Plato - no last name -

philosopher and mathematician. Roger holds that the KNOWN laws of physics fail to explain

consciousness. He talks in terms of the Mental (Mind) World, the Math World and the

Physical World with each creating the other.

                                                       To Be Continued...