Nihilism asserts that life is meaningless, and discards all morality and religion. Nihilism, if widely held as a belief system, has the potential of propelling society into chaos (Nihilism - By Branch / Doctrine - The Basics of Philosophy). Constitutions around the world have been influenced by godly principles. Therefore, declaring that God is dead or does not exist would invalidate the foundations of many governments worldwide. If a moral code becomes non-existent, everyone is free to do as they please. Violence could then very easily become the order of the day, because there would be no moral absolutes to live by (Part of this was from my Quiz3).
The beginnings of the counseling profession can be traced back as far as the Greeks with the emergence of psychology. Psychology did not develop into a legitimate profession until the late 1800s. As time went on it spawned numerous other profession, Counseling Psychology being one of them (Landrum). Some of the most prominent Psychologist in the field such as Freud, Erikson, and Witmer, utilized techniques, most notably ”Talk Therapy”, which lead to the formation of the counseling profession ("The history of counselling and psychotherapy").
“If God does not exist, then everything is permitted,” in other words, if there turns out to be no God then nothing is morally wrong.
For nihilism, a religious worldview is oppressive because it insists that we will be held accountable for our actions.
The novel describes a society in which "fetuses are raised in glass jars and are chemically manipulated to produce humans of distinct classes and abilities. People are little more than products" (O'Neil). This system, know as Bokanovsky's Process, doesn't seem too far from today's reality; the reproductive technologies that are currently available are already threatening our own evolution and human procreation. Science has practically taken over God's role in our lives. Many of the God-less scientific availabilities today share the same immoral and undignified qualities of the Utopia's advances; such as bottled embryos, surrogate wombs, cloning, genetic screening and genetic manipulation, artificial organs, and computer chip implants for human brains (Pearce). The Controller, Mustapha Mond, states "God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness" (Huxley 205). The Brave New World is rid of God and religious beliefs because they have every comfort in the world. God is needed when there is loneliness, fear of death, unhappiness, and youthful desires. However, in Brave New World, such obscenities do not exist. Therefore, in a world free from pain and suffering, what need is there to console in a higher being. Interestingly, 26% of Canadians surveyed through an "immorality poll" believe that it is immoral to be an atheist;
Nietzsche points out that morals were not given to humans by God, nor was knowledge or instinct instilled in us by God: we have created morality just as we have decided standards for "truth" and explanations for our "human nature," and so there is no transcendent external standard. If God is dead, there are no objective values and we are free to create our own values. Nietzsche says that although the death of God liberates us, leaving us free to rule ourselves, this results in a cage-like freedom: while no value is objectively "right" or "true", if we can not choose then we are not free. Nietzsche supports the individual who, despite a lack of objective correctness or "truth", makes a decision anyway, accepting responsibility for her self-created values and actions, knowing she is these actions.
Naturalism or atheism is based on the belief that there is no God or any supreme being, and the world just evolved from nothingness. The ultimate reality of Naturalism is that the eternal existence and everything that exists was created from nothing. Carl Sagan said, “Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature, c 1985.” With this train of thought the reality is looked at from a scientific point of view. Naturalism teaches that the world came about by chance, and life evolved from a simple organism to man’s life today. The theory has been debated from the Darwinism era to today. This is a theory that is presented as a fact, the science of Man.
I mostly agree with Erich Fromm. He talks about how G-d has slowly become less real and relevant in traditional Jewish Literature, but also thinks the next step should be a rejection of God entirely. He recognizes that it would not work for religious Jews. I don’t think there should be a complete rejection of G-d, I don’t fully believe in G-d and that he is always watching, but I don’t speak for every Jew and a lot of people believe in G-d. I completely agree that Judaism is not only about belief, you don’t need to believe in God to still live a life that is fully Jewish in spirit. I think you can still practice Judaism and be a good Jew without believing in G-d.
Today's social vocabulary frequently uses the word “nihilism” interchangeably with the word “pessimistic,” such as abstinence and celibacy. Admittedly, famous celebrities and philosophers, with these characteristics, do share resemblances in their personality traits. Historically, in the mid to late nineteenth century, the term Nihilism had a completely different meaning. While under the rule of Czar Nicholas II, the working class complained about how he treated the majority of the nation and demanded immediate reform. After refusing to acknowledge the pleas of the citizens, the last Russian Czar and his family were assassinated systematically by those he was set to govern. Afterwhich the people decided to form a new government, which resulted in the creation of Socialism. Despite its’ original ideology nihilistic mindsets do not occur naturally, rather they are a result of traumatic experiences.
Emptiness in my own words from the Buddhism prospective would be like imagining a person sitting in their secret place in the lotus position meditating with a basket full of issues or stress triggers. As you sit there meditating with your eyes closed, focusing on your breathing and then you would start to empty your mind of each issue found in the basket one by one. You would continue to do this until the basket is empty, until your mind is empty and until your soul is empty. At that moment is when you should reach nirvana. I imaged it being this way because of my Christian experienced, it will be the same process but instead of sitting, you will be on your knees, instead of sitting quietly, you will be praying and talking to God about each
The topic that I decided to write about for my research assignment was Christianity on Nihilism. I found an online article of a Baptist pastor named Sean Dougherty writing about his opinion on Nihilism and Christianity. According to Pastor Dougherty Nihilism is a belief in nothingness as it discards morality and religion. Pastor Dougherty believes that without God there is no definition of Good and evil. That there is no purpose in life to help others that people will become hedonistic and become selfish.
Naturalism or atheism is based on the belief that there is no God or any supreme being, and the world just evolved from nothingness. The ultimate reality of Naturalism is that the eternal existence and everything that exists was created from nothing. Carl Sagan said, “Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature, c 1985.” With this train of thought the realty is looked at from a scientific point of view. Naturalism teaches that the world came about by chance, and life evolved from a simple organism to man’s life today. The theory has been debated from the Darwinism era to today. This is a theory that is presented as a fact, the science of Man.
Buddhism stands as a philosophy and a religion founding itself on the theory of a possible eternal soul. Until awakening is achieved, this eternal soul is locked in the vicious cycle of rebirth (Samsara). According to the Four Noble Truths preached by the Buddha, life is a perpetual suffering caused by desire and attachment, and freedom from suffering is only possible by practicing the Eightfold Path. The World is suffering in a succession of temptations and negative experiences from birth to death. Therefore Buddhism advises on searching to go beyond suffering, and only aspire to rest, nothingness, and liberation, into a final state called Nirvana. Happiness or Nirvana can eventually be achieved in a hereafter, another life, if man abandons any desire or perspective of action within his present life, in order to go past suffering.
The main goal behind philosophy is to seek the deepest, and most detailed truth behind everything in the universe. Many different concepts such as relativism attempt to disprove truth that philosophy attempts to pursue. To understand what it means for philosophy to pursue truth, we must first understand the nature of philosophy, or what philosophy really is. To understand the nature of philosophy, we must look at the six chief characteristics of philosophy. The six chief characteristics of philosophy will help us understand why other concepts such as relativism are wrong, and why philosophy does indeed pursue the deepest truth.
The definition our book, found in the glossary, provides for this word is, “a viewpoint that denies objective moral truths and traditional religious and moral principles” (Fiero). Since there was limited information in our book or tours, I decided to do further research online. On a website, http://www.nihil.org/, I found they talk specifically about nihilism, stating that nihilism is a concept that is usually used to define either that we are under a rule of law and morality or that we are free with a sense of nothingness, no rules, governing body, God or otherwise. On the contrary, they believe that nihilism fits somewhere in between the 2 perspectives stating, “Nihilism argues for a middle path: we lack inherent order, but are defined by
Philosophy is the careful study if the states of, validity, existence, and conduct. It comes from the Greek word, philosophia, which translates into “the love of wisdom”. Philosophy encompasses a vast range of topics and ever person, place, thing, and idea has its roots embedded in it. For the purpose of this paper, I will be only covering the branches of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. These branches serve as the building blocks for studying and teaching philosophy. While examining these building blocks, I will argue why philosophy should be studied.