This analogy from "The Matrix" popped up on another thread on the board, and I wanted to set up a unique thread just for the subject.
The question of which pill to take illustrates the personal aspect of the decision to study philosophy. Do you live on in ignorance (and potentially bliss) or do you lead what Aristotle called 'the examined life'...
"The Matrix" is a film filled with religious and philosophical symbolism. The plot supposes that humans live in vats many years in the future, being fed false sensory information by a giant virtual reality computer (the Matrix). The perpetrators of this horror are machines of the future who use humans as a source of power. Humans are literally farmed.
The central character of the film, Neo, is presented to us in the opening part of the film as a loner who is searching for a mysterious character called Morpheus (named after the Greek god of dreams and sleep). He is also trying to discover the answer to the question "What is the Matrix?"
Morpheus contacts Neo just as the machines (posing as sinister 'agents') are trying to keep Neo from finding out any more. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."
The film as a whole and especially the choosing scene is deeply compelling. Why is the choice between what you believe you know and an unknown 'real' truth so fascinating? How could a choice possibly be made? On the one hand everyone you love and everything that you have built your life upon. The other the promise only of truth.
I wonder if Neo knew everything that would happen as a result of choosing the red pill, if he still would have taken it......
As it relates to our discussion of plural marriage, for most of our lives we have lived on assumptions and traditions that have not been rooted in any Biblical truth, but we thought they were. Suddenly, we find ourselves in revealed truth from the Word of God. For many of us, our worlds have been completely turned upside down. It has cost some of us jobs, property, freedom, family, spouses and even children.
I look back personally, and ask if I only knew then what I knew now, would I still have taken the red pill?
My answer is Y-E-S! I would rather live and walk in truth, and be broke, homeless and put out by those that I cared for and loved, then live in a shadow of ignorant existence with the pretense of those things. Besides I have this promise:
Mar 10:28-30 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
--- And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
--- But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
If you haven't yet, take the Red Pill.
The question of which pill to take illustrates the personal aspect of the decision to study philosophy. Do you live on in ignorance (and potentially bliss) or do you lead what Aristotle called 'the examined life'...
"The Matrix" is a film filled with religious and philosophical symbolism. The plot supposes that humans live in vats many years in the future, being fed false sensory information by a giant virtual reality computer (the Matrix). The perpetrators of this horror are machines of the future who use humans as a source of power. Humans are literally farmed.
The central character of the film, Neo, is presented to us in the opening part of the film as a loner who is searching for a mysterious character called Morpheus (named after the Greek god of dreams and sleep). He is also trying to discover the answer to the question "What is the Matrix?"
Morpheus contacts Neo just as the machines (posing as sinister 'agents') are trying to keep Neo from finding out any more. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."
The film as a whole and especially the choosing scene is deeply compelling. Why is the choice between what you believe you know and an unknown 'real' truth so fascinating? How could a choice possibly be made? On the one hand everyone you love and everything that you have built your life upon. The other the promise only of truth.
I wonder if Neo knew everything that would happen as a result of choosing the red pill, if he still would have taken it......
As it relates to our discussion of plural marriage, for most of our lives we have lived on assumptions and traditions that have not been rooted in any Biblical truth, but we thought they were. Suddenly, we find ourselves in revealed truth from the Word of God. For many of us, our worlds have been completely turned upside down. It has cost some of us jobs, property, freedom, family, spouses and even children.
I look back personally, and ask if I only knew then what I knew now, would I still have taken the red pill?
My answer is Y-E-S! I would rather live and walk in truth, and be broke, homeless and put out by those that I cared for and loved, then live in a shadow of ignorant existence with the pretense of those things. Besides I have this promise:
Mar 10:28-30 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
--- And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
--- But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
If you haven't yet, take the Red Pill.
