I started writing this in response to a new member’s introduction in the forum. It kind of got away from me and so I removed it to a blog post where it can be more easily ignored.
Faith in God is what keeps me sane while piloting through and around the huge dung hills that have been deposited in the middle of our playground by Progressive design. I believe that it was the faith of our forefathers that brought them here and enabled them to build a good nation. As good a nation as could be built by the likes of sinful men such as we are. Without God and His word, there is nothing left to keep me from falling into nihilism. Where I live, nihilism is like the air that we breath. I don’t think that the average Leftist has any idea what they are unleashing. We have always, as a society, had nihilists in our midst. But never has a society attempted to exist with a population that is majorly given over to nihilism. And here we are. This is the state of affairs in CA where I live. And this is what the Leftists plan to export to the rest of the nation.
May God have mercy on us all.
11 replies on “I am a Christian so that you have one less Nihilist to concern yourself with”
America holds a specific role in these times, and it is purely down to the values of its people and whether they turn to or away from God as to whether its people will survive.
“The scriptures say that there must be “an opposition in all things.” So it is with faith, hope, and charity. Doubt, despair, and failure to care for our fellowmen lead us into temptation, which can cause us to forfeit choice and precious blessings.
The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.
Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear.” ~Dieter F Uchtdorf
Well, pretty much the survival of all people depends on whether they turn to God or not. There’s not much room for quibbling over that one from a biblical stand point. Getting people to see beyond the moment, and into the eternal, giving them ears to hear and eyes to see is germane to Christ’s transforming work. All nations, of all times, had their roles to play in the eternal scheme of things. None have, or ever will, succeed at fulfilling 2 Chronicles 7:14. That was a directive given to the Jewish nation. The Jews failed in the attempt, as we all have, because none are good, none are capable. God isn’t in the business of saving nations. Yes, He saves them from catastrophe, and many lesser trials, but no nation is ever ultimately saved. That is a work that God performs one on one, individual by individual, from every tribe and nation.
What we all see unfolding in America at this time is a further revealing of the insufficiency of man. The American Left has sold its soul to the idea that man is the measure of all things. They will ultimately fail in attempting to prove this, but there have been no earthly limits placed upon them to this point. As such, they have free reign to commit nearly any travesty they wish in that pursuit. 2000 years of history points to God not directly intervening in this magnificent demonstration of man’s pathetic insufficiency. Perhaps America was raised up for just this purpose; to show how the mighty will fall when too proud to acknowledge their own limitations.
Don’t get me wrong. I love America. After God and my family, I love America best. But America as she stands today is a spoiled child in need of more than a time-out. If she were my child, it would be time for some real tough love. That is what I anticipate for the near future.
To those around the world who have depended upon America as that shining city upon a hill, we may end up disappointing you. But pray for God’s grace upon America, that her people would turn from their evil ways and acknowledge God. We would call that an awakening. Short of that, I’m afraid that there is no hope by merely the best laid plans of mice and men.
We Fremen have a saying: “God created Arakis to train the faithful.”
Perhaps. Christians would see the trials of these times as the furthering of their faith. Christ does say: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
What is a nihilist? Your definition, not the dictionary definition since it is about you and you are referring to something you are not.
A Nihilist is one who takes a materialistic worldview to its ultimate conclusion. There is no judgement to be rendered beyond this life, thus he who punches the biggest hole in the existential realm is the Ubermann. Most of the school shooting we are so well acquainted with are the result of full orbed Nihilism.
If one is to take nihilism to a more measured conclusion where would it stop?
Isn’t after death judgment religious? Isn’t after death existence religious? Can one be non-religious without taking nihilism to an ultimate conclusion? Do you think atheists are deplorables [use your own adjectives]?
These were the questions wrestled with by the Philosophers Camus and Nietzsche. To synthesize between them: yes, one could live within a lesser cast of the materialist’s worldview; not fully succumbing to the utter destructive force of Nihilism, but in so doing, one would be far less than fully realized in their potential as a materialist entity.
I believe that Camus perceived the obvious weight of the problem in contemplating the alternative of suicide. Nietzsche pushed past that point to recognize the only triumph possible is to be found in bending the material world toward one’s own will by violent force.
Nietzsche would berate the modern Atheists as week and paltry because they have succumbed to a life of relative comfort in place of their proper role; overcoming cultural norms and kicking-out all the stops that imprison them.
“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.”― Albert Camus
I don’t see it as a necessary goal, regardless of one’s mind set or philosophical tendency, to seek to fully realize it. I don’t think anyone volitionally seeks to fully realize much of anything when it comes to one’s state of being, other than those suffering from pathological extremism.
My only potential is to live the best life I can and attend to that which drives me rationally. I come to conclusions based on tangible evidence and make my choices on what is true from that. Wanting to employ that which has no evidence to make choices in how to live is, IMO, a delusional endeavor and not one I am willing to enable.
Although somewhat interesting, I couldn’t care less what some dead navel gazers had to say about the choices I would make or their labeling of me, and I don’t consider them inviolate experts on reality.
Very good then, if you find that sufficient. I do choose to follow after what I acknowledge as God’s word which has never left marooned without an answer. I hope for your sake that I am wrong.
As someone who doesn’t do religion of any kind and to any degree, I have some deep disagreements with your position.
I’d have to hear your definition of materialism before answering this more thoroughly, but if I understand what you mean by “…[taking] a materialistic worldview to its ultimate conclusion,” your definition amounts to “nihilists gonna nihil,” which doesn’t help.
A little (OK, a lot) too much Neitzsche in that – there are other philosophers. There is no judgement beyond this life, but knowing that to be true doesn’t inevitably lead to the conclusion of your statement. As I said, I don’t do religion. Yet I don’t think that I have to “…[punch] the biggest hole in the existential realm…” and I have never had any desire to be anything resembling an “Ubermann.” And all the non-religious people I know, no matter our differences about other things (and they are myriad), think essentially the same about that point. In other words, I am by no means a nihilist, by your definition or any other.
Neitzsche was wrong about pretty much everything. So was Camus.
What leads you to make that assertion? You might be correct but I’d have to see the evidence you’re basing it on to comment.
I’m going to comment on your other comments here to prevent an explosion of threads.
You seem to believe that “non-religious” (or “atheist,” if you want, though I don’t call myself that because belief in no gods isn’t the root of my thinking but merely one of many conclusions derived from it) equals “materialist.” In all my study of philosophy and religion, I’ve never seen anyone else equate the two. Again, what’s your definition of materialism?
You really must read some philosophers other than Neitzsche and Camus. By saying that “Neitzsche…recognize[d] the only triumph possible…” you dismiss any other possibilities for “triumph” (whatever you mean by that) or alternative outcomes. And despite his ability to pick up chicks, Camus was too much a depressive mope to come to any sensible conclusions at all.
Again with the Neitzsche. His view of the “proper” role of atheists is not the only one. And his placing power at the center of morality is simply a gross error.
You appear to need to broaden your philosophical horizons beyond Neitzsche, Camus, and the Bible.