Nihilism?

[smokeybearsb]

The Allah preacher dude brought this on.....

I want to start this off by saying I went to a Christian school at age 8 and left at age 13. The school was good except (which I later found out) they shoved Christianity down your throat. We would go to chapel every week where we would sing songs (which was a bit annoying when you're in middle school). I don't have anything against Christianity, but I'm for choice. I think that it would be a good idea to not tell your child anything, not give them any bias, and let them choose what religion to practice.

Over the years my faith in God has deteriorated to the point where....I don't see the point. I think I pretty much lost all faith in God after seeing C Me Dance (long, long, long, long story....the movie was funny though). Religions in general, especially Christianity since it is the most common and the only one I see practiced, just seem like cults to me now. I really don't want to believe in anything until I get a DEFINITE answer, I don't want to leave anything to chance, I think I'm just like that. I don't want any, "Oh you have to wait for God," or "You just have to believe he exists."

Over a long period of time I have started to get into this mindset of not taking anybody's crap. I realized the other day-which actually might not be true, I'm gonna have to find out for sure-a lot of people are ultimately biased, and also blinded by this bias. So many people think that they are right. Think about a roadway situation, where one car almost hits another. the one that almost hits the other will think, "The other car was in the way, it was completely his fault." The one that almost was hit will think, "What the hell was that, why did he do that? I was in the right place, it was his fault." In addition, I think a lot of people are biased from the beginning, only knowing what their parents tell them, believing that their parents are right. This led me to research nihilism, and while I don't fully believe in nihilism, I might indulge in moral nihilism. It seems to me that nothing is right or wrong, we just have expectations and morals that have been set by society. If any one ventures outside of the acceptable actions of society, then they will be rebuked and retributed (and thrown in prison).
I could start a larger, longer rant, but it would take awhile to collect all my scattered ideals.

 

[ygetoff]

Makes sense. You know you agree with something when the words "no shit" are being repeated in the back of your mind the whole time.

 

[Nargleblarg]

FINALLY someone believes what I do Thank You kind sir.

 

[hippo24]

What?

/KOTORreference



Where is this going?

 

[LockHeart]

What about things like theft? Unlawful killing? Lying? Fraud? Pretty much all civilizations that have ever existed share moral taboos along these lines. I think they're the closest humanity has to universal moral truths, even if there's no way to objectively prove something as morally 'good' or 'bad'.

 

[Internet Kraken]

So we worship this guy?

 

[Berithil]

Please, oh please, do not start another religion thread

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

I don't believe in reading so I didn't read your first post.

 

[Captain_Caveman]

Also, there is right & wrong. Nihilism is sort of an excuse for sociopaths behavior in a way.

Helping an old lady who has been mugged up to her feet = right.

Mugging an old lady = wrong.

And if you don't believe there's not enough evidence for a god, and you're using reasoning to deduct this; Then the only rational place you can end up is Agnostic. Which also accepts that it's impossible to know if there really is a god or not; so it can't be entirely discounted.

 

[Pimppeter2]

What did you expect, you when to christian school

I went to greek school, they shoved greek culture down my neck, pointless paragraphs bla blabla

 

[Skeleon]

Well, I generally agree with you.
Morals are set by society.
Doesn't mean they're worthless, you just need to scrutinize them yourself.
If there's one thing I learned in ethics classes it's that you should never just accept what's being shoved down our throats.

I don't think there is a definite answer, at least not during our lifetime.
But do we really need one, anyway?
I don't really think we do.

There's no sense in life apart from the one you ascribe to it yourself.
I can't quite understand, why some people would find this a depressing outlook.
It's actually quite freeing.

Wow, from afar this post almost looks like a poem.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'm sorry, this had to be done:

[http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=poster46530896.jpg]



Nihilists believe that nothing matters, that there is no God, no fate, no destiny, no supernatural force stringing us along and forcing us to do things, and while that's a depressing outlook, it's also a freeing one. That guy that just zoomed past you in his truck, yelling in your face and giving you the finger for no reason other than to be a dick? Guess what? He's a dick. But not because of Lucifer or Satan or Xenu, he chose to be a dick, he chose to be unkind, and like it or not, we have free will. Apparently God or whomever forgot to include the important little sidenote to that, though- we are responsible for our actions, no one else. And that is a DIRECT result of being granted free will! Isn't there something freeing about being the master of your own life, not fate or chance or luck of the draw? Isn't it freeing to think, "Oh, hey, so those lustful and perverse thoughts that went through my head during puberty- that wasn't because I was sinful per se, but rather just a natural occurance?"

Nihilism is freeing and depressing at the same time and while that's a lot to swallow, it's also reasonable. Pragmatic. And that's why I subscribe to a limited version of it, being a Buddhist and all.

 

['Stache]

The problem with nihilism is that people use it as an excuse to do bad things.
The primary function of religion in society is to provide an external motivation for people to show integrity.
The sad truth is that people are inherently selfish, and only fear of hell or anticipation of heaven can properly motivate them to the right thing when they will recieve no tangible reward for doing so.
Religion has its downside, but its upside is that it prevents moral chaos.

 

[smokeybearsb]

What?

/KOTORreference



Where is this going?

Maybe this has to do with the fact that he's my favorite Star Wars Universe character...

My literary class is bringing all this on. Before I took it I didn't know society had boundaries or morals that people had created. Now I do, and it all makes sense.

Just wanted to get my thoughts out, see if anyone else is the same.

EDIT: By the way I do think mugging an old lady is wrong, but if society hadn't said that first, then I sure wouldn't have.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

So we worship this guy?

Spoiler: Snip

Oh, I see what you did there. Nihilanth. Very good.

 

[electric_warrior]

i'm a nihilist, but it has led me to believe that the only true goals in life are to have fun and to generaly enjoy things. baiscally, my life goals are fucking, eating, drinking, listening to music, watching films and being happy.
all i have to do now is win the lottery to fund all this debauchery

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

The thing that you have to remember is that society is a construct, a construct we created to protect us from ourselves, in addition to looking after our best interests. In society, we give up some of our freedom and some of our rights, in exchange for freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the freedom to go out and live your life in the pursuit of happiness without worrying about soldiers running into your house and shooting you just because they thought you might be a terrorist or cluster bombs exploding in your office at work. Society is a creation of humanity, which is a result of our own free will- the ability to create, which means we dictate our own laws.

Mugging ladies? Killing children? Shooting people for no reason? That's all wrong and illegal. Why? Because we said so, that's why. Because society has deemed all three things (and more) are fundamentally wrong, because we made the decision not to do those things when we created society.

Nihilism isn't anarchy. You have to understand this. It's the concept of being truly free. When we are the masters of our own lives, we make our own rules, so it's up to us to decide what you can and can not do. Hence society, and hence punishments for the guilty.

 

[Joos]

I know this thread exist, but I don't care about it.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Moral nihilism..
I don't believe in any higher power or objective morality. However, I believe that being nice will make the world a nicer place.
Christianity and other religions have been trying to peddle the same ideology for ages, except they promise some sort of weird eternal-life insurance package to make it seem more attractive.
And a lot of atrocities are committed as a consequence.

 

[m_jim]

I would view nihilism as similar to anarchy. People established a moral code to preserve some semblance of order at a societal level. True, nothing is inherently "good" or "bad," but certain actions promote disorder and lack of control, which civilized societies like to avoid. And so, we get laws.