Plato's Allegory of the Cave

I noticed a lot of connections to Christianity in this allegory.

1. The Allegory of the Cave represents a large metaphor for how we believe in our perception of reality and how that effects our acceptance of true reality. 

2. The key elements of imagery used in the allegory are the chains (limitations of the material world to see the truth), being dazzled by the sunlight (our denial of the truth), and the dark cave itself as a place of ignorance and lies.

3.The allegory suggest that the few people that find this enlightenment are supposed to lead the others to this truth as well. They have been blessed with this truth but because of that its their responsibility to teach others in hopes of them cumming to terms with what is reality. 

4. The cave dwellers are kept down by the material world and in essence brain washed to a very narrow form of reality. They only see the shadows of reality and are unwilling to look at what is real and therefor live their life believing they know what is true.

5. Many things shackle our mind today like insecurity, lack of respect for authority, obvious things like drugs and alcohol, peer pressure, and a dedication to things of this world.

6. The free prisoner has gone through the experience of enlightenment and has seen what is true. He is able to look around himself and see for himself what is real. The cave prisoners have not seen the truth and are only able to see a very limited view of reality and are unable to seek out enlightenment. 

7. The simple darkness in the cave limits the prisoners vision and makes it difficult to see true life. Another limitation is belief. The prisoners have been raised this way for their whole life and now only believe in what they've been forced to believe and any variation of their reality causes them to suffer.

8.The prisoners are "liberated" and are "compelled" to stand up. This suggest the prisoners have the ability to seek out enlightenment but the actual action cause great pain and the whole act is uncomfortable physically and mentally. But the choice to seek intellectual freedom is there's.

9. Appearances may not be reality but they can represent and effect reality. My blog may not be psychically real but it will still affect my teachers choice to give me a good grade or not.