Nihilism is Empty

It’s the cop-out of the age to deny all that is good, to lose hope; to think love is for suckers or that love is “gay”. I’ve been hurt enough to try and harden my heart that way, trying to build a big stone wall with a moat and a drawbridge to try to protect myself – yeah, that worked so well! So before I continue, just ask yourself, would you rather be an angry fool “enjoying” the decline and destroying yourself, or would you rather bow up and fight for something that’s worth fighting for? Are you selfishly motivated – which of course, only results in further dissatisfaction as you grasp for certainty, finding only more doubt – or do you believe humanity and love are worth fighting for?

 

 

Although I have waved an angry fist at the sky like Basil Fawlty and marvelled mystified at how some of the smart people I knew could possibly believe in God, the most supremely annoying people to me have been nihilists. This is quite likely because my inclination in that mindset is toward “why bother?” and who can live with that? Since I didn’t particularly fancy killing myself, I persisted in looking for meaning rather than denying it. What does a nihilist do with the fire than burns within him? If there is nothing to fight for, nothing to be righteously angry about, nothing to work at and improve because all is vanity, what is life for?

The pursuit of pleasure and gratification is a dead end. How many times have we heard that story? Oh, but it’ll be different for you, I know. Go ahead then, I’ll still be here when you get back.

 

Some of this spiritual numbing comes from the unwillingness to tolerate discomfort for the sake of growth. This is understandable – discomfort is uncomfortable! But if the sole aim of life is avoidance of pain, it’s not going to be much of a life. Think about it; did great spiritual growth ever happen in the utmost comfort in a heated recliner? No. Jesus had his greatest challenges in the desert and at Gethsemane; the Buddha suffered six years of hardship, finally achieving enlightenment when he almost died of hunger sitting under the Bodhi tree. We may not have to suffer these extremes, but we are not giving ourselves any sort of gift by avoiding suffering at all costs (and make no mistake, there is a cost).

 

Like a lobster that outgrows its shell, we must endure some discomfort in order to grow anew. Life is suffering, said the Buddha. This is such an anathema to Modern Man and something that I have spent years contemplating – because while I thought “WTF kind of teaching is that?” I also knew it to contain truth. The choice we have is between embracing that suffering and allowing it to transform us as human beings, allowing it to spur us into doing, or some form or other of misguided, lazy and selfish avoidance. As the poet W.H.Auden once wrote, “Act from thought should quickly follow. What is thinking for?”

Loners’ Links

Just some things I found interesting around the Internet lately.

 

No wonder things take so long: Pipeline panel problems

 

Never a shortage of stupid people: Idiots Try To ‘Occupy’ The Vatican

 

How we become serfs: Lack of Critical Thinking is Key to the Corrupt Status Quo Maintaining Their Power

 

Book review: Religion for Atheists

 

Alpha Game: 19th century Philosopher Game

 

A question: What is your favourite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?

The Reason Delusion

If God is a delusion because He cannot be seen, then so is reason:

For most of these atheistic heralds’ foundational and crucial belief is that the only real dimension to the universe is the tangible one, the world of the senses, the physical world. This is why their manipulation of science is critical to their case for atheism. For them, if things aren’t physically observable with our senses or with the aid of technological advances or through mathematical extrapolation, then those things do not exist. And, on a superficial level and with certain reservations, that is true. Up to a point. A very near, a very narrow and a very limited point.

For science deals effectively with many aspects of the physical universe. But, it also relies heavily and conceptually on reason. And reason is not physical. It is mental. It is not a tangible thing. It is an intangible thing. But, brain activity is physical and observable. You can see it with the right instruments. So, when it comes to thinking, to reason it is important to keep in mind a crucial distinction. Brain activity is tangible. Reason is not.

Yet, reason is a crucial aspect of science. For science weds the tangible and the intangible, the physical and the mental, the observable and the logical. If it didn’t, we would not have the science and technology we have.

Yet for these atheists, the supposed champions of science, brain activity is all there is. Nothing more. Reason for them is an illusion. For them, reason is intangible; it can’t be seen regardless of the instrument employed. And, if it can’t be seen, then it does not really exist.

Read more: The Blind, Irrational Faith of Atheism