MODULE 5 – G2 – ESSAY
DEGREE PROGRAM THEOLOGY/TURABIAN

PRESENTED TO
PROFESSOR DR. GREG SCHNEEBERGER

FOR

PHIL 201 – D09

BY
REV. JOSEPH T. WHITAKER, III
LU23755920

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
LYNCHBURG, VA
SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

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Question One
Compare and contrast The Matrix with the readings from Plato and Descartes.
What are some similarities and differences? The Matrix describes a fictitious possibility of a virtual existence of the world and especially the world’s human population, unbeknownst by the majority of people involved in the virtual reality known as the Matrix. Certain players in the Matrix scenario are awakened to the proposition that perhaps their life experience is an orchestrated delusion, set into motion by certain governing powers, in an attempt to obtain and maintain absolute control upon the masses. An important character in the Matrix named, Morpheus, brings the deceptive virtual reality to the attention of other participants in the Matrix, in an effort to help awaken them to the real truth of their existence. It is discovered that rather than the daily life experience and existence of the population of the world, the people are actually unconscious of the absolute reality that they are all in a clinical state of suspended animation. This virtual reality of the Matrix overrides their normal flesh and blood existence by way of computer programming. The discovery of the Matrix false reality is so overwhelming that some individuals participate in rebellion against the Matrix, and others are disturbed by the discovery to such a degree that they choose to be assimilated in the Matrix. 3 The readings from Plato and Descartes describe a similar struggle with the dilemma of reality. Plato’s classic writing, The Republic portrays perceived prisoners bound from early childhood in such a way, beneath the earth’s surface, so that the only world that they could contemplate was the limited subterranean place of their existence. This abnormal reality is very similar to that portrayed in the Matrix. Those in the Matrix were also bound and deceived into thinking that their life experience reality was legitimate. Those bound individuals exhibited in Plato’s Republic were placed in bondage to the false reality inflicted upon them by some entity; as to where in the Matrix, societal leaders and computer technology were the culprits of infliction and deception. The sudden release from the deception of the Matrix was overwhelming. The revelation of this new reality caused a desire to expose the deception by some of the captives, but in other enlightened captives, to assimilate into the permanent depths of the Matrix. Plato’s Republic expressed a similar elation in experiencing the realities of liberation. In the case of Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, tests and evaluations of reality and the phenomena of dreams are explored. The dreamer in Descartes’ Meditation I expresses a fear of perhaps discovering that one reality or the other possible reality is a danger or protection against a harsher reality. There is a reluctance to venture too deeply into the different possibilities associated with reality. The case of the Matrix reveals a more certain choice than the possibilities proposed in Descartes’ Meditations. The Matrix seems to reveal an authentic and clear discovery of the truth, whereas, Descartes’ Meditations expresses a less certain grasp on what is in fact a calculated confidence of reality. 4
Question Four
Since much of our knowledge is based on sensory experience, and since our senses are imperfect and can be deceived, can we ever be certain that our beliefs are true? The most valid platform for answering this question is from the Christian worldview perspective. It is true that a large portion of knowledge is founded on the exercise of sensory experience. It is equally true those human senses are not perfect and that those faculties can be contaminated by various deceptions. However, it can be scientifically and mathematically justified to conclude that various Christian beliefs are in fact true. A case in point would be the fulfilled prophecy documented in Scripture and the archives of secular history. The laws of probability and the mathematics associated with those predictive laws are very strong evidence that the prophetic statements in Scripture are conclusively reliable, and remarkably contribute to legitimately believing in the orthodox foundational beliefs of biblical Christianity. In the Christian worldview, when one’s senses conflict with validated Scripture, the Christian’s only option is to embrace the Bible and to hold suspect any conflict that human senses may present. As the doctrine and law of philosophy has well said, “The first and perhaps the most primary law is the law of noncontradiction, which states: Something cannot both be and not be at same time and in the same respect.”

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Bibliography
Descartes, Rene. Excerpts from Renee Descartes. Meditation I of the Things of Which We May Doubt: Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641.
Foreman, Mark W. Prelude to Philosophy: An Introduction for Christians. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014).
Plato. Excerpts from Plato. The Republic: The Allegory of the Cave. Book VII, 514A1 – 518D8.
Wachowski, Andy and Lana Wachowski. The Matrix, Directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999.

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[ 1 ]. Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. The Matrix. Directed by Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999.
[ 2 ]. Ibid.
[ 3 ]. Ibid.
[ 4 ]. Ibid.
[ 5 ]. Excerpt from Plato. The Republic: The Allegory of the Cave. Book VII, 514A1 – 518D8.
[ 6 ]. Excerpt from Rene Descartes. Meditation I of the Things of Which We May Doubt: Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641.
[ 7 ]. Mark W. Foreman. Prelude to Philosophy: An Introduction for Christians. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014), 122.