Day 263 – Worldviews increasingly divide…disunity ensues…
Talking to a friend about his belief in absurdism last week, he led me to an article and I quote:
Absurdism is the unifier of existentialism and nihilism: it accepts that we seem to function best with some sort of religious belief in our lives, but that science has shown the nihilists are right about both revealed meaning and constructed meaning. As a result, many choose to use some parts of a meaning structure—either borrowed or constructed—to get the human benefits thereof, but without relaxing so far that they start believing it’s true.
From the article on Absurdism
Absurdism is about working within our human limitations, but without abandoning our respect for ourselves or the truth. Absurdists often either adopt or construct a belief structure that provides a day-to-day reprieve from the crushing impossibility of true meaning. Such constructs allow us to trick our evolution-soaked brains into extracting meaning from the universe, while never forgetting that the system itself is a trick.
This awareness is the difference between rebellion and surrender.
A person who has surrendered will say that they believe in their construct completely, and that it provides true meaning in the universe, while someone who has not surrendered may say they’ve adopted a scaffolding for practical reasons, but they know it’s artificial.
When I read these kinds of rationalised explanations of worldviews, I find it astonishing how much mental energy and control is required in order to uphold the philosophy.
Moreover, it’s interesting that when these theorists try to explain other worldviews, one can see they attempt to mechanically decipher the alternative belief with a mathematical, logical, ‘distant’ methodology, but clearly have no empathy or understanding of said belief.
In response to my friend, I said:
Yeah, it’s a good article…It unveils that the author has absolutely no concept of anything extraterrestrial and has seized absolute control of all facets and assets in this universe to create a blend of belief without belief.
In RPGs, this would likely be defined as the alignment “chaotic good.”
The author also fails monumentally to grasp the true meaning of surrender – it’s clarified by his explanation in the following two quotes: “True believers in mainstream religions either never believed that the world lacks inherent meaning or they chose to stop believing it because it was too empty and sad. You can’t really know which a person is without deep conversation, and significant honesty on their part.”
“A person who has surrendered will say that they believe in their construct completely, and that it provides true meaning in the universe, while someone who has not surrendered may say they’ve adopted a scaffolding for practical reasons, but they know it’s artificial.”
The first quote is flawed from my personal experience.
There were many points in my life where I thought the world lacked inherent meaning. It’s part of the reason why in the past, I concluded that a psychopath is the top of the evolutionary food chain.
I’m not the only Christian who in their former life came to this conclusion.
Famous apologetic David Wood arrived here and followed through with his conclusions about the human condition by bashing his father’s head in with a hammer.
His incarceration time saw him making a list of all the people who he intended to kill.
It was during an unexpected conversion that he found meaning in life…
I never went this far, obviously, but I did allow my behaviours to change dramatically [with pleasurable excesses I was morally against].
I also didn’t feel sad about the world in the manner that the author describes. This might be true for many people, but sorry brother, this essay does not account for my bizarre experience.
The second quote about surrender is again flawed massively and clearly the author doesn’t understand surrender.
My personal surrender has been against my will, and with belief that’s contrary to God’s construct.
This is where faith has come in which the author hasn’t addressed, because [for him to believe in absurdism] he [won’t] be able to understand steps of faith.
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