Nihilism
Introduction
Naturalism is a world-story that, for many, is a middle-ground position which gives way to Nihilism. The root of the word nihilism comes from "nothing-ism," belief in nothing. With no belief in God, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a viable basis for purpose, meaning, destiny, ethics, or knowledge. Death is inevitable, and nothing a human does can prevent, or effect this all-encompassing nothingness which is the final destiny of all life, and even eventually the earth itself.
Metaphysics
Belief about God
Does God exist?
No. All ideas of god are mistaken, but it doesn't matter that no god exists.
"God's only excuse is that he does not exist"
- U. of British Columbia Campus newspaper editorial
How do you describe God?
There is nothing here to describe, so saying nothing is the most appropriate response in describing nothing.
Is there any kind of spirit world?
No, same as above. Only the material world exists, and even it is not worth describing.
Belief about the world
Is there an overall plan or order behind nature?
No, there is no plan, no planner, nothing but a sea of non-existence, followed by a brief and bitter delusion of self-consciousness (i.e. life), followed by the permanant nothingness of death.
Belief about humanity
Are human beings different from the rest of nature?
No, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, "We living creatures are the mud that gets to sit up and look around at all the other mud. And then we get to lay back down again."
Where did we come from, & where are we going?
It is impossible to know our origin, and our destiny is death (personally & cosmically).
"I was born wandering between two worlds, one dead and the other powerless to be born,
and have made in a curious way the worst of both."
-Aldous Huxley
"Birth is the first and direst of all disasters."
-Ambrose Bierce
Axiology
2.1 Beliefs about purpose
What is the overall purpose or meaning of humanity?
None.
"Men are born, they labour and sweat and struggle; they squabble and scold and fight; those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. The release comes at last and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence ... a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever."
- Mark Twain
"That which does not kill me only serves to make me suffer."
- Eric Marcus, Pessimisms
What is the main purpose or highest good for each individual?
Born accidentally by random, unfeeling, and uncaring elements, nothing that we do individually or collectively makes any long-term difference whatsoever. There is nothing to transcend our nothingness.
Belief about ethics
How does one decide right and wrong?
You can't -- besides, there is no right and wrong, and even there was a difference, it wouldn't matter. Everybody ends up dead. Nobody wins. Or rather, nothing wins.
"Manslaughter is man's laughter."
International Anthem, Nihilist Newspaper for the Living
Epistemology
Is it possible for humans to know truth?
No, it is delusional to think that thinking itself (i.e. electrochemical synapses in our brains) bears any resemblance to the world out there, or can be trusted to yield "truth." Besides, truth itself does not exist. For Nietzsche, "Truth is nothing but conventional ways of lying."
What are legitimate sources of truth?
There are none
Nihimism Quotes
"It's not that God is cruel; it's just that God is an under-achiever"
- Woody Allen
"He's a real nowhere man, Sitting in his nowhere land, Thinking all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Doesn't have a point a view, Knows not where he's going to--Isn't he a bit like you and me?"
"Nowhere Man," The Beatles
DIABETES: It was a good play. All it needed was an ending.
HEPATITIS: But what did it mean?
DIABETES: Nothing . . . just nothing . . .
HEPATITIS: What?
DIABETES: Meaningless. It's empty.
HEPATITIS: The ending.
DIABETES: Of course. What are we discussing? We're discussing the ending.
HEPATITIS: We're always discussing the ending.
DIABETES: Because it is hopeless.
HEPATITIS: I admit it's unsatisfying.
DIABETES: Unsatisfying? It's not even believable. The trick is to start at the ending when you write a play. Get a good, strong ending, and then write backwards.
HEPATITIS: I've tried that. I got a play with no beginning.
- Woody Allen, Without Feathers
Woody [Allen] quit college after flunking his first year. He claimed, "I took all the abstract philosophy courses in college, like Truth and Beauty, and Advanced Truth and Beauty, and Intermediate Truth. I was thrown out for cheating on my metaphysicals final. I looked within the soul of the boy next to me."
- Woody Allen
In Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen goes to the library and reads in Tolstoy, "The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless." He then comments, "Millions of books and none of them knows any more about the big questions of life than I do."
"The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible."
- Atheist Bertrand Russell, on his 92nd birthday
"I will tell you what life is: it is an unpleasant interruption of nothingness."
Atheist Clarence Darrow
"We are, to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance we shall have exterminated ourselves by the end of the century. Our only consolation will have to be that, as a species, we have had an exciting term of office."
Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape
"Nature has let us down, God seems to have left the receiver off the hook, and time is running out."
Arthur Koestler, The Ghost in the Machine
"You are orphans in an age of no tomorrows."
Joan Baez, "The Hitchhiker's Song"
"The human brain is the most overrated organ in the body."
Woody Allen, Manhattan
"Eternal nothingness is OK if you're dressed for it."
Woody Allen
Further Resources
