DrZoidberg
Contributor
Here's something I snipped up in a conversation with a friend. A throwaway comment that made me think.
Is the secular meaning of life the inevitable progress of civilisation? So a heritage of the Enlightenment? And are we losing that idea? What will happen when we do?
Some background. I belong to those who doesn't believe in plain nihilism. We need a goal in life to function. We need a goal for our coming day. I believe that people who say that life is about just finding pleasure and avoiding pain just haven't spent enough time introspecting.
Both Nazism and Communism are attempts to fix this problem. Communism was born from the insight that life will always be shit for poor people, no matter how much wealth they help create. Which was true in 1848. Nazism is born from Darwinism/social Darwinism meeting the stock market crash of 1929. The insight is that life is a constant struggle. But only if we do [insert utopia] everything will be great.
If we accept it as true that we need a meaning of life (something more than plain nihilism) and that the belief in the inevitable progress of humanity is dying... what will replace it?
I think that's why religion is getting a come back
What do you guys think, and what can we do about it?
Is the secular meaning of life the inevitable progress of civilisation? So a heritage of the Enlightenment? And are we losing that idea? What will happen when we do?
Some background. I belong to those who doesn't believe in plain nihilism. We need a goal in life to function. We need a goal for our coming day. I believe that people who say that life is about just finding pleasure and avoiding pain just haven't spent enough time introspecting.
Both Nazism and Communism are attempts to fix this problem. Communism was born from the insight that life will always be shit for poor people, no matter how much wealth they help create. Which was true in 1848. Nazism is born from Darwinism/social Darwinism meeting the stock market crash of 1929. The insight is that life is a constant struggle. But only if we do [insert utopia] everything will be great.
If we accept it as true that we need a meaning of life (something more than plain nihilism) and that the belief in the inevitable progress of humanity is dying... what will replace it?
I think that's why religion is getting a come back
What do you guys think, and what can we do about it?