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oldcelt
Guest
Definitely. I can certainly recall times throughout my life when I wished that I hadn’t been born. Probably related to my general problem with involuntary situations.
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Petaro
Guest
No, in all humility I have never doubted for a second that my existence was a gift from God to the world, to women in general, and then more specifically to my wife and family. I have always thanked God for the numerous gifts He has bestowed on me through my talents and natural disposition towards the welfare of all around me.
Naturally I have looked to improve both educationally and spiritually throughout my life and have borne set backs with the natural stoicism and good humour for which I am famous amongst my many friends drawn as they are naturally by my quite charm and excellent manners.befitting a renaissance man of my erudition and culture.
I am quite aware that these talents are a gift from God and much is expected of me because of this. I am continually reassured of my success in these expectations from an always grateful wife and family, and the almost continual community awards bestowed on me from numerous professional and charitable organisations ever mindful as they are of the essential continuation of my personal support for their ongoing existence much less success…
Where am I ? Who are all these people? All I can remember was taking another of those little blue ones the chemist warned me about. What was the question again? Good grief ! was I answering that one? I cannot even spell existential without spell check…
Naturally I have looked to improve both educationally and spiritually throughout my life and have borne set backs with the natural stoicism and good humour for which I am famous amongst my many friends drawn as they are naturally by my quite charm and excellent manners.befitting a renaissance man of my erudition and culture.
I am quite aware that these talents are a gift from God and much is expected of me because of this. I am continually reassured of my success in these expectations from an always grateful wife and family, and the almost continual community awards bestowed on me from numerous professional and charitable organisations ever mindful as they are of the essential continuation of my personal support for their ongoing existence much less success…
Where am I ? Who are all these people? All I can remember was taking another of those little blue ones the chemist warned me about. What was the question again? Good grief ! was I answering that one? I cannot even spell existential without spell check…
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fhansen
Guest
Yes, I suppose it’s shocking enough finding out we’re lone rangers in a big bad universe, let alone lone rangers with possibly nowhere to hide, no place to go, no reason to exist.
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tonyrey
Guest
“There is only one really serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that.” - Camus
“A life which is unexamined is not worth living.” - Socrates
“A life which is unexamined is not worth living.” - Socrates
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glendab
Guest
UGH. Existentialism was one of those philosophies I had to study in college and I didn’t like it’s premises one bit. Although I wasn’t a Catholic at the time, I saw it as really bad. To be constantly asking "what is my point? Why am I here? and What does it all mean? really didn’t seem like productive way to employ one’s deepest thought processes. It seem self-annihilating and pointless, yet it did describe the way a mind can be disordered once all notions of God have been eliminated from it’s thoughts. It went well with Communism and I thought it explained how that political system could gain hold of the millions it did. I thought it a waste of time and couldn’t understand how such a system of thought could even be taken seriously. That’s my honest opinion of Existentialism. I really didn’t like having to read it at all. I’ve heard other philosophers and theologians call it evil and even demonic.
As for the natural existential crisis that can be a movement of the Spirit in one’s life to ask the right question: Why am I here? combined with the correct answer: “To know God and to love Him and serve Him in this life so as to be happy with Him forever in Heaven,” That is the pat answer to the question asked by countless generations of folks and the Church provided the pat answer. Existentialism eliminated the Church’s answer, and guided others to keep asking till one was emptied. An exercise in hopelessness. Thank God for the CORRECT ANSWER. And it can be found in the plain ole Baltimore Catechism!
Glenda
As for the natural existential crisis that can be a movement of the Spirit in one’s life to ask the right question: Why am I here? combined with the correct answer: “To know God and to love Him and serve Him in this life so as to be happy with Him forever in Heaven,” That is the pat answer to the question asked by countless generations of folks and the Church provided the pat answer. Existentialism eliminated the Church’s answer, and guided others to keep asking till one was emptied. An exercise in hopelessness. Thank God for the CORRECT ANSWER. And it can be found in the plain ole Baltimore Catechism!
Glenda
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Phalanx
Guest
Only in the morning 
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GEddie
Guest
I have no use for existentialism, or for philosophy in general, and fail to get why existentialism is so interesting to some.
Human life does not need a meaning. Aliveness is its own reward, being able to move and breathe, see and smell, remember and know.
And any meaning will become null and void when our eyes roll back into our heads.
ICXC NIKA.
Human life does not need a meaning. Aliveness is its own reward, being able to move and breathe, see and smell, remember and know.
And any meaning will become null and void when our eyes roll back into our heads.
ICXC NIKA.
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tomgosse
Guest
… and before coffee. Seriously, I have had very deep existential crisis in my life. Not sure how to differentiate it from depression. And I was not aware of existentialism as a philosophy at the time.Only in the morning
For me some of the questions were, but not limited to:
- If I die, do I continue to exist? And if not, does anything I do make any difference? A hundred years from now when everyone I ever knew is also gone, will be remembered?
- If there is no God, who sets the standard for moral truth? If history is written by the victors, and the Nazis won the Second World War and conquered the world, would the Holocaust be right?
God bless and pray for all who doubt or are depressed.
Tom
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levinas12
Guest
Counterpoint, I always like your questions.
I particularly like this question.
And you probably know why.
As we have gone back forth with one another on another thread, you know I believe the world is totally unnecessary. This leads to the existential crisis, the experience of radical contingency.
For an atheist, e.g., Sartre, radical contingency is expressed in terms of absurdity (or, for Heidegger, groundlessness or abyss).
But for a Christian, it shows forth God’s love for us. What is not necessary, nonetheless "is - only love can explain this. But this is an unusual love which creates out of nothing - generously, spontaneously, under no compulsion.
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VonRupp
Guest
Kierkegaard, the de facto father of existentialism, is worth reading and considering. Warning: Kierkegaard is relentless; he makes a simple statement along the lines of “Christianity is either true or it isn’t. The consequences of either are foundation shaking”. Meaning he will not suffer a comfortable Christian, one who does not realize the salvation of their soul is on the line. Either we do not believe there is a God, and thus there is no objective truth in this world, meaning there is no foundation for moral living; or there is a God, and our strongest desire should be to constantly work out our salvation with “fear and trembling”. I like Kierkegaard, because people like him are a needed shock to our beliefs. We need to test ourselves. We need to truly work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We cannot slump through the day, chasing our empty desires (Aesthetic stage) or replace God with a system of law and ethics like the Jews did (Ethics stage), but we need to sit down in front of a mirror, look into the void, and make a giant leap of faith to live a truly authentic Christian life. Existentialists in general are useful for encouraging the “Authentic life”.
But then you had existentialists like Nietzsche, who was consumed by the desire to detach himself from the fatalistic philosophy of his age. He thought the best way of answering the question of “Why even bother thinking?” was to not answer it at all, but to use the force and domination of your will to live life. Kierkegaard brought a reader from that fatalism to authentic faith. Nietzsche brought a reader from fatalism to egoism and a pyschotic detachment from society. Nietzsche may be one of the most overrated thinkers in history. His philosophy is riddled with holes, and it only appeals to the egoist who thinks he can determine his own truth in all matters. A typical elitists philosophy that claims only a few people can become such a man “superman” and Nietzsche even claimed that he understood the true Jesus more than any religion (he appreciated Jesus but disliked his altruism). And he claims that Christianity was a hoax religion thought up as a means of revenge against the Roman Empire. Nietzsche eventually went insane, a natural end of his philosophy.
But then you had existentialists like Nietzsche, who was consumed by the desire to detach himself from the fatalistic philosophy of his age. He thought the best way of answering the question of “Why even bother thinking?” was to not answer it at all, but to use the force and domination of your will to live life. Kierkegaard brought a reader from that fatalism to authentic faith. Nietzsche brought a reader from fatalism to egoism and a pyschotic detachment from society. Nietzsche may be one of the most overrated thinkers in history. His philosophy is riddled with holes, and it only appeals to the egoist who thinks he can determine his own truth in all matters. A typical elitists philosophy that claims only a few people can become such a man “superman” and Nietzsche even claimed that he understood the true Jesus more than any religion (he appreciated Jesus but disliked his altruism). And he claims that Christianity was a hoax religion thought up as a means of revenge against the Roman Empire. Nietzsche eventually went insane, a natural end of his philosophy.
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levinas12
Guest
Well, maybe not so overrated. Nietzsche had an acute sense of the real significance of the modern age. As he pointed out, with the “death” of God", everything becomes destabilized. There is no longer a “sun” and the planets fly off in all directions. Not a pretty picture. Like the rough beast in Yeats’ poem about the center no longer holding.
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empther
Guest
Nietzsche ended his days in an insane asylum. So much for his philosophy!
At least Theresa has herself figured out:
“If people hadn’t figured me out by now they never would. I just followed my conscience. What’s to explain about that?”
Good girl!
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utunumsint
Guest
Job did. usccb.org/bible/job/3
God bless,
Ut
What I love about Job is that he expresses all of this, and yet is still right with God. God vindicates him against his other “friends” for having spoken correctly.
God bless,
Ut
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Counterpoint
Guest
“I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 1:14
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GEddie
Guest
CP, I don’t get this quote.
Are you holding that death consists of our minds sleeping?
If so, they would never awaken, because there would be no human body to awaken in; and isn’t that what OP was afraid of ??
ICXC NIKA.
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TimothyH
Guest
I haven’t had an existential crisis since I quit drugs.
-Tim-
-Tim-
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J_Peterson
Guest
In Contemplative Prayer, Thomas Merton said that an existential crisis can lead to contemplation. He saw it as a way towards humility and realizing that you are in fact nothing but within that nothing is God. It’s been awhile since I read it but it’s worth reading if you are interested in Merton.
I don’t think I’ve ever really had one. I understand it intellectually but never had the experience.
I don’t think I’ve ever really had one. I understand it intellectually but never had the experience.
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Counterpoint
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GEddie
Guest
It’s self evident that what death does to our human bodies is very real!
ICXC NIKA.
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