Existentialism
( & existentialists)
Flaws of a Secularist Model
The problem for modern man, is how did he go from being created a being of the spirit, to live such a truncated life, that now all of his efforts are geared at the uncritical life, the un-reflected life ? How did so many become existentialists, often living life in despair ?
Most of the people who try to deal with these questions on a standard level can only approach them with a level of inherent existentialism. It is inherent meaninglessness. It is not that they know for sure that their own lives have no meaning for a fact, although
1) they FEEL as though their life has no meaning, and
2) they cannot find anyone else who HAS meaning to their life, simply as a function of Example
Therefore, practical experience teaches them that they should do anything EXCEPT have any hope. The reason is not hard to understand: Hope in the midst of rational despair leads to an Increase in the level of personal agony, rather than a decrease in the level of internal pain.
The main problem with this model is that its understanding and approach to life is that it claims to Want to approach truth, but can only do so from a secular perspective. This perspective admits only to spiritual illusions. It accepts the predicate (the unstated rule) that Man is a being with spiritual needs, but rejects the premise that there is a God who can meet those spiritual needs.
This is a flaw built-in to the secular model. The secularist however disputes this and asserts that at least he is honest enough in his contemplation of his own despair: Fine, but the problem for those who insist on this reality is that it is a reality that can never climb out of existentialist despair: being real in the despair means either a meaningless life or a despairing one. The only other option is the pleasure-diversion model which usually leads to drugs not as the basis for addiction (though it often ends up there) but rather drugs as the vehicle for Distraction From despair. The honesty of this (in theory) - is that the drugs are not premised to solve anything actual, and the user acknowledges their illusion.
However on a realist model, the use or function of engaging in "distraction" (drugs) has a devastating effect on the user. But to the self-honest existentialist this is not really a "price" as much as an investment, albeit one in their own self-destruction.
The problem - later on - is that what began as an exercise of the mind to willfully be distracted from existential pain (through drugs) often becomes a process that the user eventually looses control of. At that point, the issue is not the gain of pleasure or distraction, but rather the avoidance of pain (the pain either of withdrawal, reality or both) - and the function of biological habit sets in. Need (or perceived need) ...is winning a bit more everyday.
Those are the consequences of the honest but God-unknowing lifestyle.
It would be unfair to characterize it as a "God denying lifestyle", because the function of the lifestyle is not specifically to deny God, but rather to attempt to escape meaninglessness. The assertion of anything to be "God-denying" is often perceived as a rejection in the premise of the user, of their original intent of Honesty, honestly facing existential internal agony.
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However, truly Wanting to be a realist in the face of existential pain, does not necessarily deny a Higher reality, which is that if God exists, and If God can be apprehended, and If God can be consciously or rationally understood, or even emotionally related to (admitting theoretically that God might actually exist - if only admitting this for the moment), Then the person who is insisting on their honesty (about not knowing of God) in facing their internal pain, and agony of meaninglessness,
may in fact not be engaged in honesty but rather self-deception, IF and Only IF, God exist and can be communicated with or communed with.
And the tendency is that - for better or worse, most humans who examine the human condition honestly and face their existential despair, only tend to be more familiarized with that despair, even as a function of their honesty.
The result then of being honest, as they eventually realize, is greater pain. That is why even though Freud calls love an illusion, that he nevertheless admits that its possible solution (to internal agony) is worth the gamble, in case it pays off [to state this in very un-freudian terms).
This realization of increased pain, is also why most intellectuals on the left are in favor of drug use. IF personal honesty results in personal pain, then in the face of a meaningless life and a meaningless universe, the least society can do, for the moment, is allow a few people to find comfort in their illusion. From the point of view of the left, this is love expressed, because the premise of drug consumption (the consumption of others, not oneself) is an act in allowing others to deal with THEIR agony.
It is not honest to characterize this as mindlessness or social anomy, because social anomy (social allienation) is the exteriorization of the pain. Despair is the internalizing of the personal pain.
Thank God, that after the discussion of pain in this manner, that at least we have the HOPE of reducing the level of pain of Some people, those who will dare to consider - from their POV - alternate realities.
The solution is not the "searching for" God. It is the Finding of God. That remains a disturbing statement for many. Some can conceive of the search for God, but the concept of FINDING God involves the claim that one Has been searching and second, that one has Found God. Those concepts can be strange to think about.
But the real basis for the objections of those who are existential...is the belief or claim [by others] that one has Found God, and the Assertion that this claim is NOT an merely an assertion or a delusion.
After all, most people who are self-proclaimed existentialists do not mind Others searching for God. If nothing else, they understand this as a personal attempt to mitigate personal agony.
The problem however is that in making the claim that one has actually Found God, that this claim, the claim to have "God" be an authenticated fact - this claim serves to undermine the inherent contention [of the existentialist] that his own {their} "honesty" is ...in fact...honest.
The existentialist understands this better than most, and THAT is what upsets and angers him. After all, if God CAN be apprehended or understood by one other person, it means that - potentially GOD is "findeable". This would mean that God can be sought, God can be Found, and God is willing to be communicated with.
As the existentialist knows, a claim to have Found God is a claim that God communicates back with the finder. It has to be and mean this, on some level, because the existentialist knows that this is what would give the "quest for God" not only theoretical meaning, but Actual meaning.
And what unnerves existentialists, is that the ones who make the claim to Find God, are usually those who used to be existentialists, only Yesterday.
No one, no matter what their worldview, particularly likes to have their view of the universe upset. Habit essentially dictates this. And nothing tends to upset more, than to find that in a meaningless world created by chance, existing at random, with all of this meaninglessness which is visible, palpable, breathable and existing on all levels - that someone has found God.
IF this were true, this would shatter the premises of the existentialist life:
1) The meaninglessness of the universe and our lives, and
2) the importance of being honest about the meaninglessness of life
People who think that they have Found God miss the point about why futility is often beautiful.
Most of the poems of Edgar allen poe or other "darker" poets speak of a bleak existence in a grey universe. It is not that those poems have intrinsic beauty, because the existentialist can admit to Nothing inherent (except biology perhaps) or therefore "inherently" beautiful.
What is beautiful is the fact that Poe manages to derive SOME meaning, from meaninglessness. And to an existential mind, THAT is the closest that one can come to beauty. The beauty of the poetry or the beauty of the moment is not measured by any kind of intrinsic standard in an objective sense. It is rather measured by the level of meaning one can temporarily give that expression, measured against the [scale of] the meaninglessness of life.
Now, to get back to temporary reality, nothing is more annoying than someone thinking that they have found meaning in a meaningless universe. For that reason (and many others), existential professors devote huge amounts of time in university and college classrooms not so much teaching as inculcating the "acceptance of meaninglessness", not so much as a function of Dogma as much as a function [from their POV] of honesty.
Since meaninglessness is a fact, then to attempt to assert otherwise is itself an exercise in un-truth. Untruth must be resisted and therefore Can be countered, by the imposition of WILL over folly.
And when professors attempt to follow this line of logic, THAT is when they give in to the premises of Political Correctness. It is - in their minds - alright to repress you - since your conduct - by its very nature being folly [the folly of attempting to find meaning], it is an "act of kindness" to separate you from your delusion [of God] which would lend itself to your next deluded state.
Unfortunately, at that point, professors might admit that they actually engaging in their own levels of repressive conduct. While some professors admit this, most would deny it. But even those who admit it, say that they are basically repressing the student temporarily and for his own good. Never mind the fact, that when THEY were the same age as the college students that they were repressing, they would [themselves] have characterized that kind of conduct by professors as actually being Fascism . Somewhere, the "honesty" of looking at despair honestly went out the window, and gave way to comfort and habit.
And at THAT moment, that teacher has become everything he claimed to have hated, and expressed every intolerance he claimed he would fight against. That is often what happens when Despair is combined with Authority.
Fortunately [or unfortunately depending on your POV and level of honesty] - there is a better way. It is the way not of seeking God, but of FINDING God.
Of course, that presupposes that God was sought, AND that either he found God or God found Him (or both). What existentialists fear - other than God, is the fear of Lost Hope. Most existentialists are actually disapointed romantics, and what leads them to despair is that they REFUSE to give up hope.
But just because they refuse to theoretically give up hope does not mean that they are going to agree that your self-proclaimed solution, is hope-full...in any objective sense of the word.
Many existentialists, disturbed and angry, actually spend Huge amounts of time and energy attempting to disprove, not the fact of the God, but the legitimacy of searching for Him. Not only are they A-theists, they are dedicated to the proposition that even if God does exist, it might be better if He did not.
After all (from their pov), if God allowed them to have this level of despair, just how "good" can He be ? Just how "Loving" can he be ?
And viewed from that intensely disbelieving point of view, every statement about the love of God or the experience of God actually Angers and offends the existentialist greatly.
It is not that God does not exist, it is more that He Can Not [exist].
The question of God is thus Demoted. God himself is almost never considered. "What If" is almost never considered. Since God - by virtue of the level of Agony that the existentialist feels - cannot exist, the consideration of God’s existence is a demonstration of stupidity.
In other words, faced with the possibility that either
1) God exists, and personal pain/agony was simply a "choice" or
2) God cannot exist, and personal pain is the only reality
The existentialist will almost always attempt to chose his own pain as the "objective" reality, because to himself, THIS is how he demonstrates both his own "integrity" and his "honesty".
Never mind the fact that IF God exists, the existentialist was not in fact being objective, but rather Subjective.
IT is Subjective - to cling to a premise which is only personally true (and Not objectively true) - if there is a larger premise of GREATER honesty, which would contradict the "fact" of "personal" honesty.
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At that point, the issue is not so much one of dealing with God, as much as it is one of dealing with God...ABOUT the HELL that He [God] must have put us through.
And so the frustration of personal existential meaninglessness gives way to Great ways and waves of Anger, as the existentialist struggles to finally consider, WHY God might have "inflicted" this level of "meaninglessness" on him...for so long...instead of treating him as a person deserving of love that the existentialist tells himself that he is.
Even the discussion is difficult to the existentialist. Before he only had to deal with his own Presumed meaninglessness. It was not only the despair of his reality, but the meaninglessness of his own existence that he dealt with, but his own meaninglessness stood only on a Theory.
But IF GOD exists AND yet the existentialist feels a "lack of meaning" to his life, this means that the pain which he has felt might not be so "theoretical" or the product of his own twisted worldview (the existentialist in that moment temporarily admits his own pov is potentially subjective). The pain which He feels and has felt just might be an unspeakable cruelty:
If God exists, then the agony that the existentialist feels might actually be the product not only of the Mind of God, but of the WILL of God.
Any GOD who would do this surely must be an $#*()$#@$))!!!!, and if that is the kind of God that others declare is love, they are deluded, God is nothing less than hateful, and any harm inflicted either on God on those who know Him AUGHT to be justified, if only for putting me through this Level of Agony !!!
Now Ten Minutes ago, the fact is that the Existentialist could allow Edgar Allan Poe to be deluded and yet know that Poe was expressing his own level of personal choice and Freedom of expression at the same time that he was expressing his [Poe’s] loss of meaning and loss of Hope.
What mattered at that moment - to the existentialist - was the fact that he was willing to let Poe be
self-expressive. The fact that the existentialist could - in that moment - approve of the choice of Poe to have meaningless as his own personal choice...was...to the existentialist...an evidence of the existentialist’s willingness to commiserate with Poe...on that level of self-expression.
Yet, when God evidences that same perspective allowing the Existentialist to also fully express himself in the way that he [the existentialist] chooses, through meaninglessness, at that point in time, the same existentialist suddenly becomes indignant and self-righteous toward God.
How Dare God, use the same rules that the existentialist was using, and agree to the inherent worth of a temporary moment...that Poe was expressing or any other moment that the existentialist was expressing...
That would mean that the existentialist would understand, that his own self-proclaimed meaninglessness would have [horrors] - MEANING - from the point that God could allow him [the existentialist] to apprehend meaninglessness...IN ORDER LATER...to have a chance to apprehend what the Meaning of God is all about.
To a human, it might have been a struggle of thirty years to get to that point, often longer. To a God who is the creator of the universe, who not only transcends time but created time, what is thirty years to help a human understand a point, that if the human had not actually experienced, he could never have apprehended ?
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God has meaning. God is meaning. God is meaningfulness, not in the abstract sense of the undefined concept of meaningfulness, but in the concrete sense of what true impact on GOD is all about.
God is concerned with us, not with the sincerity of how lost we are, but with the honesty of how much we are willing to pursue the honesty of God, so that the END of that quest can result in the successful search for GOD.
Don’t expect God to measure time and agony on your standard. He cares about you, but the lessons HE wants you to experience are Eternal. They are on a bigger scale.
And while you are busy thinking this life is "all there is", God is busy creating your next future, in meaning and meaningfulness with Him, IF you are able to apprehend Him, IF you are honest in your seeking, and IF you cry out to God that He would find you and never let Go.
You have to determine what you want God to do. You are in fact - far more sovereign than you hoped ever to be. God is separated from you because of your lack of perfection. An imperfect mind cannot understand God. It is often a little confused, especially at the beginning of thinking about God.
But God’s consideration of you, extends way beyond your agony and meaninglessness. You were created because He wants not only to know you, but to use you, not because He cannot do things for himself, but because God enjoys working with and through people. It is not a function of how Good you are, but rather a function of how God is.
In the same way that it took time to understand existentialism, it now takes time to understand God. In his own time, in His own way, in HIS own sovereignty, God reveals himself to whomsoever He chooses, in His order of the universe. We can either learn about it, or simply be impacted by it. It is worth considering that at this very moment, someone else out there is only beginning his own understanding of existentialism, and He will not discover God for another ten years. And for that person, his ten years in the wilderness will have served the purpose that now, at last, he may be actually willing to listen to God.
God is not nearly as random as many want to think, but that does not deny the fact that while God is apprehended by some, He is missed entirely by others, and somehow this can happen almost while the same two people occupy the same space.
God is who God is. He is loving and kind, but in His way, on His scale. God is not who you want Him to be, on your level or my level. God transcends us all. That does not mean that we cannot understand Him, though it does mean that in order to understand Him, we must learn to understand Him, in His ways.
To those who attempt this, (and God knows those who seek Him from those who merely pretend), God reveals Himself and encourages them. To those who simply rail at God, they may continue to experience their meaninglessness for many more decades. God is not in a hurry. God is never early, and God is never late. Whenever you begin to apprehend that God is real and worth pursuing, you experience this maybe as yourself catching up. To God, it was only the moment of your appointed time.
God - the real one - the Creator of the Universe - is Love. This does not mean that everything God does FEELS good. It means that what God does in your life, or allows in your life, it is truly to help you know and understand Him. If you were not important, God would not have led you to this page. But don’t forget that while God works with you, He is also working to help Billions of others come to understand and know Him as well.
It is hard enough for each of us to manage our own lives. Managing the lives of millions upon millions is a task only big enough for a GOD. The kind of people we become will depend on the kind of God we serve. If God is love, then his followers will reflect that. If God is hateful, then those who follow that kind of God would reflect that. The followers become a reflection of whom they follow.
God really DOES exist. Everything that He truly is proves it, (though this may not yet be obvious). Imperfect minds have trouble grasping God’s reality. But God will reveal himself to those who are truly seeking Him and willing to seek Him.
We must begin where God can be found. The gospel of John in the New Testament testifies of God and to the mission of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. He existed before the world began. He became a human in order to pay the price so that each of us could find God. But the story of Jesus Christ can be found in the book of John.
If you are willing to do the reading, and if you are seeking God, be sure and tell Him. When you sincerely talk to God out loud about finding Him, He hears you. Read the Book of John, and the Gospels. Write to us anytime. We do not have all of the answers, but we may have a few.
God as an objective reality is much better than the subjective reality of despair, and to know that God loves us and that our lives have meaning, is a dream come true. It is true and justified Hope, not only on the basis of truth, but also on the basis of Experience. The Experience with God is a true experience, not a subjective reality. It takes time to understand some of this (since the point is to understand God, not simply what someone else has written). But the quest to understand God is far more noble and has much more fullfilment, than any meaningless alternative.
And the fact that finding God can mean Eternal Life, that is not a bad side-effect either.
Book Links to Amazon.com
The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God
The God Who Is There
by Francis A. Schaeffer,
He Is There and He Is Not Silent
by Francis A. Schaeffer
How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
Christian Books in German
Gottes Prädikat: Unendlich wertvoll Unendlich wertvoll
von Josh McDowell
Bibel im Test. Tatsachen und Argumente für die Wahrheit der
Bibel.
von Josh McDowell
Die große Scheidung oder Zwischen Himmel und Hölle
von Clive St. Lewis
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THERE IS NOT ONE CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH WHERE MUSLIMS ARE PERSECUTED.
Yet in most nations where the majority of the population are Muslims, there is systematic government persecution of Christians.
NO HAY UNA NACIÓN CRISTIANA EN LA TIERRA EN DONDE PERSIGUEN A LOS MUSULMANES.
Con todo en la mayoría de las naciones donde está musulmanes la mayoría de la población, hay persecución sistemática del gobierno de cristianos.
CI NON È UNA NAZIONE CRISTIANA SU TERRA DOVE I MUSULMANI PERSECUTED. Tuttavia nella maggior parte delle nazioni dove la maggior parte della popolazione è musulmani, ci è persecution sistematico di governo dei cristiani
ER IS NIET ÉÉN CHRISTELIJKE NATIE TER WERELD WAAR MOSLIMS WORDEN VERVOLGD. Maar toch in de meeste naties waar de meerderheid van de bevolking Moslims is, is er systematische overheidsvervolging van Christenen
NÃO HÁ UMA NAÇÃO CHRISTIAN NA TERRA ONDE OS MUÇULMANOS PERSECUTED. Contudo em a maioria de nações onde a maioria da população é muçulmanos, há um persecution sistemático do governo dos cristãos.
ES GIBT NICHT EINE CHRISTLICHE NATION AUF MASSE, IN DER MOSLEMS VERFOLGT WERDEN. Dennoch in den meisten Nationen, in denen die Majorität der Bevölkerung Moslems sind, gibt es systematische Regierung Verfolgung der Christen.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
--Article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of
Human
Rights--
Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.
Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in
His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF
THEIR OWN FREE WILL.
Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.
That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.
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Le conversioni cristiane - secondo la bibbia - possono MAI essere forzate. Nessuno che fossero un cristiano allineare forzerebbero o compell chiunque da diventare un cristiano contro il loro propri. Il motivo per questo è quello che agisce contro la volontà o contro l'intenzione di qualcuno sia un'azione di disrespect al dio. Alcuna conversione a christianity che sarebbe "forzato" non sarebbe riconosciuta da God. È nel suo allineare e la natura GENTILE, quella coloro che viene a lui e sceglie credere in lui, deve venire a lui della LORO PROPRIA VOLONTÀ LIBERA. Il dio cristiano è abbastanza grande capire come rispondere a coloro che decide che non desiderano conoscerle o capire. Il lavoro dei cristiani deve continuare a comunicare l'amore del dio a tutto che sia disposto a sentire parlare di esso. Molti popolano persino oggi, non desiderano sentire parlare del dio cristiano. Più specificamente, che cosa quella gente non desidera è affinchè senta parlare della bontà del dio cristiano. Quella gente è impaurita che se scoprite circa la bontà e la qualità e l'amore del dio cristiano, quello che potete desiderare per scoprirgli più circa. E quella gente è impaurita che il dio che servono sarebbe opposto a vostro scoprire la verità circa il dio di christianity che offre per sempre la vita Eterna a coloro che chiede esso e decide credere in lui e scoprire più dal libro denominato "il nuovo Testamento". Quello è il timore reale di coloro che oppone il dio cristiano. Non lasci chiunque dirvi che il supporto dei cristiani abbia forzato le conversioni. Quello è falso. Il christianity allineare non è MAI forzato
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Core Universal Rights
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
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Las Derechas Del Universal De la Base
La derecha de creer, de adorar, de explicar y de atestiguar la derecha de cambiar su creencia o religión la derecha de ensamblar junto con otras y de expresar su creencia
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Diritti Dell'Universale
Di Nucleo La destra credere, adorare, spiegare e testimoniare la destra cambiare la sua credenza o religione la destra unirsi insieme ad altre ed esprimere la sua credenza
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De Universele Rechten van de kern
Het recht om en het recht te getuigen zijn geloof of godsdienst te veranderen het recht te geloven, te aanbidden, te verklaren samen met anderen toe te treden en zijn geloof uit te drukken
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중핵 보편적인 권리
자기의 신념 또는 종교를 변화하는 권리를 믿, 숭배하, 설명하, 목격하는 권리 다른 사람와 함께 결합하, 자기의 신념을 내색하는 권리
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Καθολικά δικαιώματα πυρήνων
Το δικαίωμα να θεωρηθεί, να λατρευτεί, να εξηγηθεί και να βεβαιωθεί το δικαίωμα να αλλαχτεί η πεποίθηση ή η θρησκεία κάποιου το δικαίωμα να ενώσει μαζί με άλλους και να εκφραστεί η πεποίθησή κάποιου
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