Doubt Resulting in Faith

When people think of believers, they think of someone that has unwaivering faith. They have total convinction to their cause or religion, and do not have any doubt in their mind that what they believe is true. But is this an entirely accurate interpretation? Are we pinning the label of "faithful" on to someone who is more "radical"? When we watched the TED Talk in class about faith being the result of doubt, it really made me come to the realization that yes, most of the time, doubting something you believe in results in you being more faithful to your previous belief, or helps you to create a new faith in something that is the opposite of what you previously believed in. I do believe that doubt leads to faith. For example, I doubt whether or not I can complete certain tasks, or whether or not I am doing the best that I can do, and this leads me to have more faith in myself and what I am doing with my life. Doubt is an important part of faith, and as soon as you have an untouchable belief in something that you have never doubted, you no longer have faith.

Plato: The Cave Analogy

The Cave analogy is a famous idea created by Plato, the student of Socrates, who became a philosopher after the death of his mentor. The Cave analogy basically tells a story of a person who has been forced to live in a cave since he was born. The cave walls have shadows playing all over them, because of the fire behind them that has figures in front of it in order to cast shadows. The person also has other people beside him. They have all been living there since they were born, and all they have ever seen is the cave walls in front of them. One day, one of the men releases himself from the chair that he is tied to, and explores the world outside of the cave and comes to a great realization of what the world really is. He comes back to tell his friends, and they refuse to believe him, and end up killing him for believing in such radical ideas. I believe that this analogy not only represents a philosopher's misson- to help people gain insight into the truth- and how they can persecuted for it, but it also represents Plato's mentor, Socrates. Socrates, in a way, released himself from the grasp of social norms, and decided to attempt to find out what the world really was. He was killed for doing so, just as the man in the cave was. He could also be talking about human beings being represented by the ignorant people in the cave. Because human beings do not know any better, and do not know for sure what could be out there, they represent the cave people. The philosopher, though, is unsatisfied with this, and is not exactly an ordinary person. This cave analogy is really interesting to me, because it makes me realize how little we truly know about the universe and the world. In the future, will we one day gain insight into something that we never knew could possibly exist? Will we change as a society because of it? Will we refuse to believe it, like the cave people?