The Nihilist Crux
In brief, nihilism is not philosophy. Philosophy is wisdom, love of wisdom, and nihilism is total annihilation of existence which is not wisdom.
However, nihilism as a way of thinking is not entirely false or wrong. What is wrong is when a nihilist point of view is projected as a holistic view of reality as in “nothing has meaning”, “there is no truth”, “there is no such thing as good or evil”, etc. That way of thinking is in fact wrong and typical of the arrogance of youth that has yet to experience a world of beauty, tragedy, love, and suffering with a dynamic range of human experiences.
If you don’t think there is meaning to doing charity, reducing suffering, and improving the human condition for people less fortunate than yourself, than you are obscenely arrogant and spoiled with privilege. If you don’t think there is such a thing as truth, good, or evil, then you have never experienced injustice, tragedy, or trauma and are yet again obscenely arrogant with spoiled privilege. However, nihilism contains a kernel of truth and wisdom as it pertains to the concept of “nothingness”.
Nothingness is best conceptualized as the void between a present reality and the destination of a leap of faith. There is in fact a void where one’s self-identity experiences annihilation, and that is something vital to our human experience, but it is not a state of permanence or where you want to conclude your perception of reality. It is a state of transition through which you pass to find the truth of meaning as it pertains to yourself. What I think nihilists often confuse is that just because nobody can tell you what your meaningful existence is, that does not mean that existence has no meaning. The meaning, truth, and knowledge of good and evil is something that you have to ascertain for yourself and only the self can do so.
In the ages past, and still prevalent today, there are many charlatans masquerading as Christians who try to tell people what morality is, how they should live, and what their purpose in existence is, and they are in fact wrong to do so. Furthermore, they have been violently criminal, tyrannical, and oppressive in their attempts to force their ignorance and megalomania onto others so that is why I believe there has been such despairing backlash culturally with ways of thinking such as nihilism.
The professed “faithful” embody atheism, hate, and the meaninglessness of evil completely by being false Christians or apathetic, lukewarm Christians. They do not understand that the foundation of Christianity is in fact inherited cultural evil through the ideology they profess, and that requires active goodness, effort, work, and participation in life as a benevolent, charitable contributor to simply balance. If they are apathetic and not doing works, such as protestants are obscenely arrogant to believe, they are stagnating in the inherited evil of racist nationalism reapplied to their own relevant group that they learned from Jews. That is truly evil and they should not be doing that. They should be apologetic for having such a belief inseparable from their faith as a cross they know they will be crucified on, which is why Christian theology as a formal dialogue with non-Christians is called “apologetics”.
This has gone on too long already….
In conclusion: nihilism is like a spice of restraint used best to flavor the grandeur of hopeful faith in the benevolence of the highest divine. The benevolence of the highest divine is true, and it is true that the hope of faith can be unrealistic in expectation, but there remains unlimited possibility to the realization of that hope nonetheless. The best practical way to internalize this teaching is to not rely on divine power to do anything for you. Expect nothing, prepare for everything, and as often as possible be humble as a servant willing to do the work of the divine master because if that was a person, they most likely have more important duties than attend to your own matters which you are likely capable yourself of handling by your own ability. At the same time, never reject divine help, even if you don’t think you need it, and always be thankful for even the smallest amount of it.
Footnote 1: The Protestant concept of Martin Luther “faith alone”, is a confusion and obfuscation of the truth. If you have faith that is all you need because you will automatically do works! However, if you are not dong works, then you don’t have faith. It is less clear to say faith alone because you cannot have faith in Christ without the other, though you can have works without faith and be blessed for those works as if you had faith. I suppose it is more accurate to say: works alone (solo laborus)!
Matthew 25:42-46
42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ 45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Copied from the New American Bible (Revised Edition) This is my favorite form of Bible and not because I am an American, but because of the way it was translated by intention. The preface explains their methodology if you are interested in reading that for yourself.
Although the atheist who does good works will not know Christ, the Christ will know them because they are righteous. The light of the Word will make known his presence so that they may have the reward of eternal life without the journey of faith. Very much like the man crucified with Jesus and saved by a word— with God, the opposite of reality is often true. The journey is not as important as where you arrived in the end. Was most of your travel through sin and mistake, but ended with enlightenment and wisdom? Good. Was most of your journey in obedience but you ended as a tyrant and criminal? Bad.
If your journey had been obedience in good faith you would have known the rewards of faith that enrich the human heart with compassion and joy, and not ended up bad, but those who did end up as tyrants compounding problems for others never had faith, only obedience. They are like the circumcised who do not understand why it is done, thinking it is only for the benefit of their body and their identity. Not so— they are circumcised for the benefit of the Gentiles, and if they are good, the Gentile blesses them two-fold like a profitable investment being returned with capital gain. They have not been good though, and by my Word they are royally screwed for eternity, and I am keeping their investment because they did not keep their faith.
There are some good ones, like Larry David, Ben Stiller, and Adam Sandler, to name a few… but… the good Jews are going to have to move to save themselves from what is to come. It is not hopeless or even difficult for them to do that, but if they insist on clinging to the golden calf, or are too stubborn and prideful to shift their position to get out of the way of a mega-ultimate super Saiyan Gogeta x4 Kamehameha infused with the power of the Eternal Dragon Shenron supercharged by centuries of Mako technology hijacked by Avalanche to boost power at the last moment plot twist— then… hopefully you get the idea of what is happening and why it is a solution and not a problem.