I saw a video yesterday that addressed Plato’s cave, and it also discussed Plato’s theory of forms in a very abbreviated manner. I am positive that it goes into deeper depths, but in short the idea of forms is this: God has an idea of things like beauty, truth, good, etc. All these things are the perfect form of these ideas. However, on earth we can never achieve that perfection. So, instead we are constantly trying to achieve an estimation of that form, but we never get there. A philosopher, artist, or enlightened individual understands the idea of forms and when they see something that is truly beautiful, then they can see how that can be elevated closer to the form that God sees.
It’ a cool theory. I like the idea of forms, except for me, there’s a problem. It’s still so human centered. Everything we experience we want to give a name and category to it. We want to believe that it has to be named and given a form. The reason we want to believe that is because it is how we experience the world. We experience this world in a physical sense with time and space. However, in the beginning of the Bible, God existed before time and space. He existed before the light and darkness were separated. He exists and experiences this universe in ways that we don’t completely understand. If there is a perfect form and on earth an approximation of a form, then there is only one. The perfect form is God, and the approximation of that form is the human being that is created in His image. We are the imperfect copy of the perfect copy of God. We imperfectly experience this universe, we imperfectly understand this universe, and we imperfectly understand it.
Every philosophy that I read or learn about tries to understand and explain the world, the universe, and our existence on human being’s terms. Most religions even though they claim to put God or a deity or an idea first all try to understand our existence through human terms. I don’t claim to do that. I believe that God exists on a completely different plane than we do. He is not of this physical realm entirely. He doesn’t experience things solely through the physical world the way human beings do. As much as I try, I cannot fathom the idea of existence beyond the physical realm. To be honest, I don’t know that anyone else can either. With all these ideas of multi-verses and everything else, I have yet to read or see an representation of someone who can communicate that idea of a realm beyond the physical. I know they have tried, but it always has physical elements in it.
I don’t want to try. I don’t need to understand what it is like because I don’t need to experience what God experiences. I just need to be and trust in God to guide me. I just need to understand that what I experience is a physical world, but it is only for now, a short blip in time. It serves it’s purpose, but I need to realize that existence is so much more that what my body lets me perceive. If I can do that, then anything is possible, there’s nothing to fear, and God exists.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
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