National Dissolutionand Søren Kierkegaard
Part 3
The final product of Kierkegaard’s arrival in the west with the translation of his writings can only be described as theological and philosophical dissolution. Irrational thinking and feelings took hold of logic and articulate thought and inculcated themselves within the fabric of popular society. The thinking of the world now became a set of self contradictions that bowed and gave homage to a gospel of confusion.
Objectivity is Subjectively Objective
Just to set up a definition for the term Existentialism is to belie Existentialism itself. Existentialism is itself not really a philosophy. It is a label for a myriad of rebellions against traditional philosophies. Living existentialists do not want to have “intercourse” with the affiliation to existentialism. To someone outside the “club house of the somnambulant”, it may appear that perhaps the only thing existentialists have in common with each other is, in fact, a severe aversion to each other. It may indeed be best if the term “existentialism” were perhaps allowed to rest in the dust bin of history all together.
This isn’t even a school of thought, like most valid philosophies are. The most well known existentialists, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Sarte; don’t even agree on basic points. Pascal and Kierkegaard were so called Catholics or “Bible Christians”. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky were impassioned anti-christians and fanatic Greek-Orthodox Russian imperialists. Rilke, Kafka and Camus tread an even farther distance from the beaten path. The more we look at major proponents of existentialism, the more we see that they are in reality just a disenfranchised group of individualists.
In simple black and white, the true definition of existentialism is this: The refusal to belong to any school of thought. The rejection of any body of beliefs whatsoever. The view that current traditional philosophy is superficial, academic and remote from life and therefore useless and dissatisfying.
If you break a crumb in half... you have two crumbs
Existentialism actually makes a “career” of floating on the shifting waters of a great ocean. Having contradiction and anomaly at its heart of hearts, one could say anything about existentialism and it would be true. For those who support it, “the moment” is everything. There are no causes, no consequences, only interaction with the outer world is paramount. As any Freudian psychologist would ask with world shaking importance, “How do you feel about that?” As true existentialists would report, it is our feelings in the moment that make up reality. Having unfortunately seen movies like Saw 5, I can understand where in our society this kind of thinking has become a broken mast aboard a ship caught in a violent storm, which darts and spins out of control in hapless abandon, threatening to cripple or disembowel any who are foolish enough to remain standing on the tilting bow of its ship.
Atheist existentialists promote a form of thought that denies any priority or common ground of morality. The only thing that is right is what is right for you. It’s a good thing we have laws and law enforcement. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Nothing is true, nothing is false.
We're Not in Kansas Anymore
I close my eyes, Only for a moment, then the moments gone. All my dreams, Pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind, All they are is dust in the wind. Same old song, Just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do, Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see, Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, ohh Now, don’t hang on, Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, And all your money won’t another minute buy, Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, Dust in the wind, Everything is dust in the wind - A song by Kansas
Gee, it’s just a pop song, you might say. But composed minds understand all too well that there is a difficult strain of insanity that runs through the whole exercise of existentialism. Incomprehensibly, it has become a major tenant of thought of our day. Today’s western civilization is now replete with colleges whose philosophy departments are built upon the ground floor tenants of existentialism. College students everywhere have been poisoned by the brainwashing effects of this non-philosophical point of view. When sending your kids to college, you really have to consider just whom you are giving your money to. What are you supporting? The mental contagion of existentialism has become a pandemic of sorts across not only America, but outwards toward most of the world. Is it even possible to root out and destroy a virus like this? One whose main position is : “what fee
ls good, do it.”
So Meet Me At Midnight Baby,
Inside the Sad Cafe....
We received the rebellious, raging youth culture of the 60’s from the womb of existentialism. From the stolid society of the 50’s Happy Days, we shifted towards a culture of boys who look like girls and girls who look like boys, and transvestites who were allowed Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame, when just 20 years earlier such persons would have been run out of town on a rail. I haven’t even touched on the subject of Homosexuality since the appearance of existentialism and the “mustard plant” it has grown into since this day, because there is just to much to say at this time and it would take us off the current subject for too many paragraphs. But trust me, there is a TON to be said about it’s insidious presence in our society. Another blog, for sure.
College students of the 60’s became college professors and spread their agenda toward the next generation of children. Along came the free sex thing, free love, narcotics use for fun, orgies, seances, not to mention “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and the “Suicide Solution”. Of course, Ozzy defended his song as NOT a call for teens to commit suicide, using all the precepts of equivocation, a ground floor practice of Kierkegaard, to be sure.
Hey, Teacher! Leave Those Kids Alone!
But hey, existentialism is fun, right? Say good bye to the "squares". Goodbye to sleeping with your windows open at night. Goodbye to knowing your kids could be kids in their young life before they ever became knowledgeable about adult matters, both lofty and base. Goodbye Opie Taylor, hello Jake Harper of TV’s Two and a Half Men who says things like: “Anyone want to lick the beater?”, after he bakes muffins that are a running joke based on the euphemism of muffins being a correlation to female body parts. Anyone who has seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show knows what a “sweet transvestite” is, and how funny and friendly they can be.... right? Goodbye to Elvis’ “Only Fools Fall in Love” and hello to Rap music’s “F*** a Stupid B*tch”.
Yeah, we’re just having fun.
Like Darwinism and Marxism, existentialism panders to the lower base instincts of mankind. It is not just a potential alternative school of thought, but is reprobation itself. Even the most pagan of philosophies from the past held to some form of logic, some form of intrinsic organization and they usually attempted to redefine truth. This can’t be said of existentialism.
Since the 60’s, existentialism has cleaned up itself a bit. It is now a corporate shill in an Armani suit, a modern woman who teaches 2nd graders, and even a cool, progressive preacher. It looks for all the world like sophistication. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck. Epistemological nihilism always leads to death even when it is served in “cups of Kool-Aid”.
Surely You Jest... Stop Calling me Surely....
Back at the end of World War II, classic liberalism expired. That’s when Kierkegaard and the religious existentialists were discovered by leaders of education and ecumenical denominations in America, Brittain, and the European continent. Neoorthodoxy was born, existentialism in religion was now in fashion. A popular proponent of this was a man named Heidegger. A well known source on such subjects states:
Existentialism, through Heidegger, has influenced and formed existential theology, especially in the work of Barth, Bultman, and Tillich and Macquarrie. This approach stresses the existential moment in hermeneutics and preaching, in which humanity is summoned to respond to the call of God to live an authentic life. Jesus is the perfect example of an authentic existence. The nature of being, as outlined by existentialism, has led Tillich to interpret God as the “ground of our being” rather than as a being at all. This effects both theological epistemology and ontology. Existentialist philosophy asks the fundamental human questions of existence. Theology’s task is to provide the answers.
Other writers such as Marcel and Weil have adopted an existential approach to theology in contrast to clinically abstract theology. For them, theology is participative and incarnational, emphasizing the ontological weight of human experience. The key is dialogue and communication as an individual (The “I”) with the eternal “thou”. This leads us to faith and assurance.
That was as tough to write as it was for most to understand, I am sure, but it calls attention to the relevancy of neoorthodoxy and its advent. Disillusioned liberals at the end of World War II felt betrayed by the pseudo Christianity that they had adopted and promoted throughout the world. Needing a new ground floor upon which to stand, they began to turn back to orthodoxy, but they were NOT willing to re-embrace the Word of God as truth. They stopped short despite the revelation that their first rejection was instrumental in the most dangerous time span mankind has ever seen.
Did God Really Say That?
Using the power of equivocation so prevalent within existentialism, they infected the Christian faith with words that only sounded like the real thing when referring to Christian paradigms. True believers were deceived by a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so to speak, as they sat in churches naively believing they were receiving correct and sound doctrine.
As an example: “All scripture is given by inspiration from God.” The neoorthodox theologian uses the word inspiration but removes its meaning. To this way of preaching, inspiration is not what happens when God gives his word, but instead what happens when the word impacts a human spirit. Therefore, for these folks, the Bible isn’t “THE Word of God”, it only “contains” the Word of God. Inspiration is now an experience, not a definition of provenance relating to Holy Scripture.
Salvation too, is equivocated. No longer is it a cleansing of sin by the shed blood of Christ, but now it is a psychological experience with the personality of Jesus. Terms like “holistically” and “realization” are now added in to tweak the true message. The effort is now on improving the human spirit and moving mankind ahead, rather than the rebirth of a fallen mankind by turning to a loving creator.
We cannot, of course, blame Kierkegaard for all of these events. Many are the result of the beast born from his seed, but he does still hold fast the title of “Father of Existentialism” and therefore it is essential to include his insane ramblings when considering our present philosophical and religious conditions.
One more chapter of this swill to go.... if you are still reading
Objectivity is Subjectively Objective
Just to set up a definition for the term Existentialism is to belie Existentialism itself. Existentialism is itself not really a philosophy. It is a label for a myriad of rebellions against traditional philosophies. Living existentialists do not want to have “intercourse” with the affiliation to existentialism. To someone outside the “club house of the somnambulant”, it may appear that perhaps the only thing existentialists have in common with each other is, in fact, a severe aversion to each other. It may indeed be best if the term “existentialism” were perhaps allowed to rest in the dust bin of history all together.
This isn’t even a school of thought, like most valid philosophies are. The most well known existentialists, Jaspers, Heidegger, and Sarte; don’t even agree on basic points. Pascal and Kierkegaard were so called Catholics or “Bible Christians”. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky were impassioned anti-christians and fanatic Greek-Orthodox Russian imperialists. Rilke, Kafka and Camus tread an even farther distance from the beaten path. The more we look at major proponents of existentialism, the more we see that they are in reality just a disenfranchised group of individualists.
In simple black and white, the true definition of existentialism is this: The refusal to belong to any school of thought. The rejection of any body of beliefs whatsoever. The view that current traditional philosophy is superficial, academic and remote from life and therefore useless and dissatisfying.
If you break a crumb in half... you have two crumbs
Existentialism actually makes a “career” of floating on the shifting waters of a great ocean. Having contradiction and anomaly at its heart of hearts, one could say anything about existentialism and it would be true. For those who support it, “the moment” is everything. There are no causes, no consequences, only interaction with the outer world is paramount. As any Freudian psychologist would ask with world shaking importance, “How do you feel about that?” As true existentialists would report, it is our feelings in the moment that make up reality. Having unfortunately seen movies like Saw 5, I can understand where in our society this kind of thinking has become a broken mast aboard a ship caught in a violent storm, which darts and spins out of control in hapless abandon, threatening to cripple or disembowel any who are foolish enough to remain standing on the tilting bow of its ship.
Atheist existentialists promote a form of thought that denies any priority or common ground of morality. The only thing that is right is what is right for you. It’s a good thing we have laws and law enforcement. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Nothing is true, nothing is false.
We're Not in Kansas Anymore
I close my eyes, Only for a moment, then the moments gone. All my dreams, Pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind, All they are is dust in the wind. Same old song, Just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do, Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see, Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, ohh Now, don’t hang on, Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky
It slips away, And all your money won’t another minute buy, Dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, All we are is dust in the wind, Dust in the wind, Everything is dust in the wind - A song by Kansas
Gee, it’s just a pop song, you might say. But composed minds understand all too well that there is a difficult strain of insanity that runs through the whole exercise of existentialism. Incomprehensibly, it has become a major tenant of thought of our day. Today’s western civilization is now replete with colleges whose philosophy departments are built upon the ground floor tenants of existentialism. College students everywhere have been poisoned by the brainwashing effects of this non-philosophical point of view. When sending your kids to college, you really have to consider just whom you are giving your money to. What are you supporting? The mental contagion of existentialism has become a pandemic of sorts across not only America, but outwards toward most of the world. Is it even possible to root out and destroy a virus like this? One whose main position is : “what fee
ls good, do it.”So Meet Me At Midnight Baby,
Inside the Sad Cafe....
We received the rebellious, raging youth culture of the 60’s from the womb of existentialism. From the stolid society of the 50’s Happy Days, we shifted towards a culture of boys who look like girls and girls who look like boys, and transvestites who were allowed Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame, when just 20 years earlier such persons would have been run out of town on a rail. I haven’t even touched on the subject of Homosexuality since the appearance of existentialism and the “mustard plant” it has grown into since this day, because there is just to much to say at this time and it would take us off the current subject for too many paragraphs. But trust me, there is a TON to be said about it’s insidious presence in our society. Another blog, for sure.
College students of the 60’s became college professors and spread their agenda toward the next generation of children. Along came the free sex thing, free love, narcotics use for fun, orgies, seances, not to mention “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and the “Suicide Solution”. Of course, Ozzy defended his song as NOT a call for teens to commit suicide, using all the precepts of equivocation, a ground floor practice of Kierkegaard, to be sure.
Hey, Teacher! Leave Those Kids Alone!
But hey, existentialism is fun, right? Say good bye to the "squares". Goodbye to sleeping with your windows open at night. Goodbye to knowing your kids could be kids in their young life before they ever became knowledgeable about adult matters, both lofty and base. Goodbye Opie Taylor, hello Jake Harper of TV’s Two and a Half Men who says things like: “Anyone want to lick the beater?”, after he bakes muffins that are a running joke based on the euphemism of muffins being a correlation to female body parts. Anyone who has seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show knows what a “sweet transvestite” is, and how funny and friendly they can be.... right? Goodbye to Elvis’ “Only Fools Fall in Love” and hello to Rap music’s “F*** a Stupid B*tch”.
Yeah, we’re just having fun.
Like Darwinism and Marxism, existentialism panders to the lower base instincts of mankind. It is not just a potential alternative school of thought, but is reprobation itself. Even the most pagan of philosophies from the past held to some form of logic, some form of intrinsic organization and they usually attempted to redefine truth. This can’t be said of existentialism.
Since the 60’s, existentialism has cleaned up itself a bit. It is now a corporate shill in an Armani suit, a modern woman who teaches 2nd graders, and even a cool, progressive preacher. It looks for all the world like sophistication. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck. Epistemological nihilism always leads to death even when it is served in “cups of Kool-Aid”.
Surely You Jest... Stop Calling me Surely....
Back at the end of World War II, classic liberalism expired. That’s when Kierkegaard and the religious existentialists were discovered by leaders of education and ecumenical denominations in America, Brittain, and the European continent. Neoorthodoxy was born, existentialism in religion was now in fashion. A popular proponent of this was a man named Heidegger. A well known source on such subjects states:
Existentialism, through Heidegger, has influenced and formed existential theology, especially in the work of Barth, Bultman, and Tillich and Macquarrie. This approach stresses the existential moment in hermeneutics and preaching, in which humanity is summoned to respond to the call of God to live an authentic life. Jesus is the perfect example of an authentic existence. The nature of being, as outlined by existentialism, has led Tillich to interpret God as the “ground of our being” rather than as a being at all. This effects both theological epistemology and ontology. Existentialist philosophy asks the fundamental human questions of existence. Theology’s task is to provide the answers.
Other writers such as Marcel and Weil have adopted an existential approach to theology in contrast to clinically abstract theology. For them, theology is participative and incarnational, emphasizing the ontological weight of human experience. The key is dialogue and communication as an individual (The “I”) with the eternal “thou”. This leads us to faith and assurance.
That was as tough to write as it was for most to understand, I am sure, but it calls attention to the relevancy of neoorthodoxy and its advent. Disillusioned liberals at the end of World War II felt betrayed by the pseudo Christianity that they had adopted and promoted throughout the world. Needing a new ground floor upon which to stand, they began to turn back to orthodoxy, but they were NOT willing to re-embrace the Word of God as truth. They stopped short despite the revelation that their first rejection was instrumental in the most dangerous time span mankind has ever seen.
Did God Really Say That?
Using the power of equivocation so prevalent within existentialism, they infected the Christian faith with words that only sounded like the real thing when referring to Christian paradigms. True believers were deceived by a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so to speak, as they sat in churches naively believing they were receiving correct and sound doctrine.
As an example: “All scripture is given by inspiration from God.” The neoorthodox theologian uses the word inspiration but removes its meaning. To this way of preaching, inspiration is not what happens when God gives his word, but instead what happens when the word impacts a human spirit. Therefore, for these folks, the Bible isn’t “THE Word of God”, it only “contains” the Word of God. Inspiration is now an experience, not a definition of provenance relating to Holy Scripture.
Salvation too, is equivocated. No longer is it a cleansing of sin by the shed blood of Christ, but now it is a psychological experience with the personality of Jesus. Terms like “holistically” and “realization” are now added in to tweak the true message. The effort is now on improving the human spirit and moving mankind ahead, rather than the rebirth of a fallen mankind by turning to a loving creator.
We cannot, of course, blame Kierkegaard for all of these events. Many are the result of the beast born from his seed, but he does still hold fast the title of “Father of Existentialism” and therefore it is essential to include his insane ramblings when considering our present philosophical and religious conditions.
One more chapter of this swill to go.... if you are still reading
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