Is Plato's ideal world comparable to heaven?

Question

Plato thought there was an ideal world where ideas live. Independently of people. These ideas throw a shadow on the material world we live in. By examining this material world we can get knowledge of the world of ideas. But this knowledge will never be perfect. We can make a 3D cube from stone or we can construct an image of it in the head but it will still be a reflection or shadow. Math gets close but still it doesn't give the idea itself. Maybe Plato had a different view regarding the last (his cubes, tetraheders, dodecaeders, etc. are thought by him to be perfect "Platonc" objects corresponding to how the ideal world looks like). I am not sure. Of course there are many more objects thinkable than his Platonic objects.

Is his ideal world comparable to the concept of heaven? Of course the question is what I mean by comparable. Well, both offer an ideal world. An idealized version of reality. In heaven there is no wordly suffering, for example. In the ideal world of Plato the ideas don't suffer from human contamination. What are the differences? Can his ideal world be compared with heaven in the first place?

Answer 1

Yes, it is. Heaven is an ideal (and eternal) place too. Life on Earth is just a shadow from life in heaven. Just as the ideas of Plato are. We can approximate heaven on Earth as we can approximate the ideas in the ideal world (the world of ideas). There is a one to one correspondence between the world on Earth and the ideal world or the heavenly world. All good, just, or nice experiences are present in heaven, like all ideas (especially the mathematical ones and of these especially the Platonic geometrical objects) are present in the world of ideas. An idea can be approximated by constructing it's physical appearance. Like we can approximate heavenly elements.

There are differences though. Plato's world is a unique world. Heaven though can't exist without hell. Both worlds coexist. In one you experience only suffering [like experiencing endless repetition of things as is described in the book "Het Leven van een Dag" (the life of one day)].

The elements of both worlds clearly differ too. The world of ideas that Plato envisioned contains mathematical ones only. Heaven includes these also and on top of it a considerable portion of the wordly world (only in a heavenly way).

Apart from both being eternal, both having an existence outside the worldly domain, and both having elements (which differ in Nature though), the Platonic world will never be entered by people. I think this is the biggest difference. In heaven there could be Platonic ideas present. So the Platonic world is a sub world of the heavenly world but contrary to heaven it cannot be entered. Elements of both though can be experienced on Earth but in an approximated way.