Existentialism...

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Neithan

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…can it be reconciled to Catholicism?

The more I discuss philosophy, with its innumerable interpretations of reality, and the countless configurations of ethical *values *I encounter, the more compelling existentialism becomes.
 
when we were in Catholic HS and college (60s-early 70s) so-called “Christian existentialism” was being promoted heavily as part of a larger effort, I surmise, to “make the Church more relevant to the modern world”, to be ecumenical, to reconcile a perceived (and non-existent) divide between faith and reason, and as an apologetic for the more unelightened (read traditional) aspects of Catholic faith, practice and popular piety. This trend I now think was part of the wider trend ongoing in theology circles since the 19th c to overturn scholasticism and Thomism in Catholic education and theology.

this misdirection is responsible, IMO and in my observation and experience with my Catholic peer group, for the loss of faith of a huge portion of my generation, because this philosophy is completely at odds with Christianity. Like similar attempts to meld Eastern spirituality (Buddhism etc) with Christianity, it too has failed, since they are in opposition, complete negation of each other, and cannot be reconciled without altering Christian teaching unrecognizably.
 
The platform for existentialism is logic and reason.

However, logic and reason are dependent on God. Let me explain:

If there is no God, then human intelligence is simply the product of a universal accident.
If there is no God, then logic and reason are domains employed with collective human intellect
(collective universal accidents), and is also a universal accident.

Therefore, within a context where there is no God, there is a great probability of error in
any logical assertion as both the domain and the one who makes the assertion are by nature accidental.

If both your user and tool are accidents, the success rate of your product is unlikely to be good.

The best scenario for logic and reason are when a God exists:

A God who designed the human brain and intellect so that humans may have a sense of understanding
of the world (albeit non omniscient).
A God who designed the framework for logic and reason, and himself also is definable by the basic
principles such framework (Infinite, Omnipresent, Immovable, All Good).

In consequent, pure existentialism should be void of reasoning or logic, and should not be philosophical
(as it is philosophically largely open to error, and should not be a clear option). However, by definition, existentialism cannot be so.

What is existentialism without philosophy? Self-centered living.
 
Let me tell you that existencialism started and a Lutheran christian philosophy. Soren Kierkegaard anyone?
Them you got Gabriel Marcel Catholic and Nicholas Berdiavev.
And Karl Jaspers who was a deist.
So some forms of existencialism do have a Christian idea of transcendence. The Being fills the nothingness with God. Sort of a mystic after a Dark Night.
Sadly it seems that nihilistic existencialism got more publicity thanks to Nietzche, Heidegger and Sartre.
 
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