Absurdism

[meltzerboy]

Not exactly true.
A person can lose everything they think was important…and then, go right ahead in the next minute and convince themselves that having nothing is the greatest happiness ever, and then they are happy.

Simple.

It’s one’s perspective and what one believes that makes a person happy.

That’s why people of different religions can be so happy. Each believes they have the right one. And at the same time, I know an atheist who is happier than any religious person I’ve ever met. Because he believes he has the key to happiness, which is freedom from religion, and so…he does.
.

Perhaps thinking that “having nothing is the greatest happiness ever” can come about by convincing oneself that without anything, one is free from responsibilities, or that if one has nothing, one cannot lose anything. However, I think some might contend that this is a form of self-delusion and self-denial of the pain one feels due to the loss. BTW, isn’t this the ultimate goal of some streams of Buddhism: that is, to detach oneself of all materialistic needs and attachments to others, as well as to oneself? Perhaps it is also present in Christian monasticism, but in a different form.

 

[john330]

just joining thread, forgive me.

What if there are other options that Camus is not taking into account. Also, what if there are reinterpretations of the options that are available?

What if someone chooses faith in God in order to rebel against the absurdity of life? What if adopting a religious worldview is a way of accepting the absurd? Why isn’t acceptance of the absurd an option? What if an atheist accepts the absurd? The three propositions in the op do not nearly satisfy the full spectrum of attitudes available to man as he faces the absurdity of life

 

[ngill09]

just joining thread, forgive me.

What if there are other options that Camus is not taking into account. Also, what if there are reinterpretations of the options that are available?

What if someone chooses faith in God in order to rebel against the absurdity of life? What if adopting a religious worldview is a way of accepting the absurd? Why isn’t acceptance of the absurd an option? What if an atheist accepts the absurd? The three propositions in the op do not nearly satisfy the full spectrum of attitudes available to man as he faces the absurdity of life

The bolded is addressed at great length and detail by the Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard, who is widely considered the father of the existentialist philosophy of which Sartre and Camus are a part. One of the foundations of his philosophy is the necessity of faith in overcoming despair.

I’d also suggest reading Catch-22 which is an absurdist novel with strong existentialist undertones.

 

[Della]

The bolded is addressed at great length and detail by the Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard, who is widely considered the father of the existentialist philosophy of which Sartre and Camus are a part. One of the foundations of his philosophy is the necessity of faith in overcoming despair.

I’d also suggest reading Catch-22 which is an absurdist novel with strong existentialist undertones.

It occurs to me that these people who presume to speak for religious people ought to ask religous people themselves what faith means to them rather than assuming they know the answer?

My faith has NEVER been a opiate for despair. Hope, even foolish hope as Gandalf put it, is a virtue not merely a denial of anything. It is a positive not the negation of reality. And that is what people who have no idea what it means to actually practice a faith, especially one that has the virtues and promotes them, can not seem to understand.

You don’t see and then have faith, you have faith and then you see. It’s really that simple. The faith has to be in a reality, though, not merely a charima of the imagination–that is self delusion as is atheism, but that may be a topic for another thread.

 

[anon1234567]

I’ve been studying l’Etranger by Camus at school, anyone read it?

 

[YosefYosep]

Camus talks about how humans desire, goodness, and purpose in the world yet we live in a world with little of that. He calls this the “absurd situation”. To me it sounds a lot like CS Lewis’s idea of desire. We all desire something higher than us, we desire eternal peace, and complete fulfillment and satisfaction. Our desire must indicate something that can fulfill these desires like how our hungry desire for food points to a real thing, food. Therefore our desire for eternal life, paradise, and goodness must point to something real that fulfills that. It’s just our nature. We are all wired for God.

 

[ngill09]

Camus talks about how humans desire, goodness, and purpose in the world yet we live in a world with little of that. He calls this the “absurd situation”. To me it sounds a lot like CS Lewis’s idea of desire. We all desire something higher than us, we desire eternal peace, and complete fulfillment and satisfaction. Our desire must indicate something that can fulfill these desires like how our hungry desire for food points to a real thing, food. Therefore our desire for eternal life, paradise, and goodness must point to something real that fulfills that. It’s just our nature. We are all wired for God.

This is a complete non-sequitur. Human beings are capable of abstraction. We desire peace because we’ve experienced peace, and we want it to last forever, because we want everything we want to last forever.

And while religiosity is fairly ingrained in most people, huge portions of the globe don’t believe in anything like a personal God.