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The Death Of God By Martin Buber, William Barrett, And George Steiner

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It is perhaps ironic that although the universe is infinite with any number of possibilities, there is an inability for humanity to find its permanent place within it. Following the religious decline in the midst of the scientific revolution, humans were exposed to an unleashed rationalism and threatened by a meaningless existence. No longer were there constraints on what could be known, for all dimensions of human life, including even the most ancient texts, could be explained through scientific analysis. This provoked the “death of God”, in the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, and a rise in nihilism. This loss of security in the world has condemned man to an empty era; one of nothingness, and with no lucid image of the universe. All of these themes are notably discussed throughout the works of Martin Buber, William Barrett, and George Steiner. An insight of Buber’s essay “What is Man?” explores the concept of humanity’s perpetual epoch of homelessness, while Barrett analyzes modern man’s encounter with nothingness through his study in existential philosophy, Irrational Man, and thirdly, Steiner and his lectures composed in Nostalgia for the Absolute examines as the title itself suggests. These recurring themes of homelessness, nothingness, and nostalgia for the absolute are paralleled with many modern cultural expressions. William Golding explores these issues of mankind in his dystopian novel Lord of the Flies. Without an absolute rule or moral code to abide by, the

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