The Four Idols That Distort The Truth

“If truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom…” (80).

In old times, humankind has looked to utilize stories to clarify the world in which it lives. Similarly, as old man utilized stories of divine beings and creatures to clarify the world; superior person utilizes stories of exceptional legends and colossal scoundrels to do likewise (Stuller). Comic books are modern mythology, in that they are superior man 's strategy for clarifying their general surroundings through the fantastical. The characters frequently handle such major, philosophical, (Ahrens, Jörn, and Meeting) social and story ideas as the nature of sound and malevolence, man 's inward battle, the wannabe, the women 's activist, and the rescuer.

Delusions: These are false beliefs that are fixed and do not change in the presence of evidence. They may be persecutory, grandiose, somatic or religious (APA, 2014).

     In "The Four Idols," Francis Bacon discusses the concept of what fundamentally stands in the way of a human using the correct way of arriving upon a conclusion. Bacon believes there are four falsehoods that delay people from uncovering what they need to: the idols of the tribe, cave, marketplace and theater. At first I thought that these idols did not apply to humans at all, but now, after careful consideration, I understand how each idol relates to humankind.

The false belief is not accounted for by the persons cultural or religious background or his/her intelligence. The client experiencing this will hold on firmly to the belief regardless of the evidence to the contrary, the client is absolutely convinced that the delusion is real. Delusion are symptoms of either medical, neurological or mental disorder.

Humans want to be like other humans. Likeness breeds security, and with this, people will go to great lengths to conform to their peers. This concept dictates a large part of everyone’s daily lives in the society built around them, as demonstrated very clearly by Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible; a story of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. In this case, because people conformed to what people around them were saying and doing--accusing people of witchcraft and executing them--twenty two lives were lost. After considering how the events of The Crucible portray conformity and the place in society conformity occupies, it becomes quite clear that conformity, while it has it virtues, can result in many societal issues that can be easily

It is often affirmed that as the most dominant species on planet earth, human beings essentially rule the way in which our world has evolved; we have cognitive abilities that allow us to explore a multitude of complex variables, utilize logic, formulate a wide range of choices, and act out our decisions. However, even as highly logical creatures, humans have the propensity to be influenced by the choices of others or information presented to them, form groups of like-minded individuals, and participate in behaviors they would likely not have undertaken on their own. This particular behavior has been coined the “mob mentality and under it, people appear to become mindless automatons that lack any ability to act on their own thoughts. While there are perfect examples of mob mentalities doing good, such as the pivotal march on Washington during the Civil rights movement of the 1960’s, to something as simple as the yearly gathering of like-minded individuals at the Burning Man Festival, there are far more insidious examples such as the Holocaust, the Salem Witch trials, and Bacon’s Rebellion. In the realm of human behavior, each of these “events” is representational of what psychology defines as a mob or herd mentality and this group behavior has been an intrinsic quality of human civilizations throughout history. As such, this writer believes that Bacon’s Rebellion is a prime example of the negative implications mob mentalities are capable of generating. However the

The term “myth” is often associated with stories that are considered to be false. In the context of religion, however, the term, “myth”, describes any of the tales that are accepted by a given religion, and these stories are usually treated as historical fact by followers. The Abrahamic religions would likely agree that most of the myths in their sacred texts are indeed historical facts. There are parallels between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that should be recognised. The similarities are greatly apparent in the myths that are described within their holy books: the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, respectively. This paper will compare the myths of creation; the great flood; the prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad; and the afterlife as they are viewed by the three religions to show that their individual myths have more similarities than differences.

Through a veil of lies man obeys the State, the Church, the mass opinions of their peers, or any other organization that they view to be in power. This affords him a false sense of safety and protection. In his obedience, man feels strong allowing him to be controlled by the fear of being isolated or having undesirable repercussions greet him as a result of any disobedience. Throughout history it has been evident that, for the most part, the few in power have ruled over the majority. The foundation of this relationship has been “the few” equating obedience with virtue and disobedience with sin, resulting in man not only needing to obey, but wanting to obey. Man’s inability to see that he has lost his ability to disobey and stand up for what he believes and values, instead of what he has been brainwashed to believe and value, will inevitably ensure the destruction of all civilization at the hand of man. Man’s only saving grace will be his ability to realize

Among many diseases, judgment is an epidemic virus within the human mind; more dangerously with the lack of discernment can create a toxic atmosphere and such intoxication is highlighted within the short story, Revelation, by Flannery O’Connor. The story is set in the south, and revolves around an irrational yet religious character, name Mrs. Turpin, who overlooks her own flaws to cast judgments on others. The author uses language, irony, and archetypes within the story to present that judgement is a form of unconscious self deception that causes hypocritical behavior and ultimately self agitation. The author demonstrates this by having the characters cast judgment upon each other, which makes the act of passing judgment on to others an infectious disease fed by society.

The corrupt community from The Giver parallels the ignorant prisoners’ experience trapped in the shadows of their cave. In Plato’s theory, the cave represents people who have a false understanding of reality in society. The cave shows that believers of purely first-hand evidence are trapped in a “cave” of

In order to retain the singular qualities that markedly define them, these characters to succumb to the immoral temptations that lay in their paths, blinding themselves from the truth. Deception encourages

In a world where grotesque is seen as an asset and normal a defect, intentional or not, Dunn makes the statement that world values are a superficial element more commonly referred to as human nature. Is it a coincidence that the figurehead in this book is a sociopath cult leader who fleeces his followers without consequence, the only thing missing are tax shelters and offshore accounts. Our narrator’s greatest flaw is that she loves so deeply and unconditionally that her very life is a risk every moment of every day. The Siamese twins represent the yin and yang, good and evil, black and white in the world, a constant push and pull between love and hate. And, the Christ figure that has the power to move heaven and earth but will be put to the test just like any other mythological super

Bacon explains what Idols of the Cave are, and how they lead to a distortion of the truth. “The Idols of the Cave are the idols of the individual man. For everyone (besides the errors common to human nature in general) has a cave or den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature” (Bacon 131). Here, Bacon describes that every person has their own ¨cave” which represents the fault of people. The cave distorts the truth and reality, and this is how false facts come to be. Because everyone has their own cave, one truth is distorted differently by every single person until

Altering an audience's opinion is a struggle that many writers face; it is always possible, however, to unite the reader with the speaker's position. In Paradise Lost by John Milton, the author attempted to persuade his readers into thinking that the theme of obedience to God will keep you in a blissful state and disobedience will keep you in a wretched state by the use of light in his books. God is associated with a radiant white light; while on the other hand, Satan is affiliated with a dark shady black. With this use of this contrast of symbolism of light and dark, there is a clear distinction that light is righteousness and more desired than the darkness, which is