Existentialism
Uploaded by reuben on Jan 29, 2004
What is certain? The truth of stories written two-thousand years ago? That an invisible God exists above us? That all is pre-determined? That there is life after death?
No, all that is certain is one?fs self and death. Existentialism makes the most sense of any of the beliefs.
Billions of people across the globe worship or pray to some form of a higher being or, ?gGod,?h on a regular basis; I find this to be somewhat insecure behaviour. The fact that a person needs to go that far and waste that much emotional energy believing in something that never reacts, or responds in any way boggles the mind.
The belief in a ?gGod?h is, in almost every case, a story passed through the ages. Smudged, poorly translated documents of exaggerated accounts with miracle-workers and great warriors have been passed down through the centuries, with each generation?fs scriber adding his own embellishments to the story, kind of resembling the telephone game you played as a child. For example, the story may have started off about a woman named Jessica who happened to be an excellent physiotherapist, and by the time it is halfway around the circle, it is about a man named Jesus who could ?greally work miracles?h (ha ha). Remember how silly the story became by the time it got all the way back around the circle? I have a good feeling that in a thousand years from now the story will have changed even more. And do not get me wrong, I enjoy the stories; however, I find them more amusing than enlightening.
Existentialism, to me, is a much more intellectually sound and sophisticated way of living. It involves living through logical analysis, which I find gives it a fair amount of credibility since that analysis is left up to the individual as opposed to living by a set of rules created by a character in a story. An existentialist?fs life plays out according to the decisions he makes and the consequences that follow. The existentialist knows that life is not as complicated as it is made out to be and does not have to worry about anything that does not directly concern him/her. This makes for a very apathetic personality; however, apathy is merely a trait recognized by other people who, to a true existentialist, would not matter either since they cannot prove the existence of their own minds.
It seems to...