Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
Tom Caylor writes (quoting Bruno Marchal):
[TC]
> > My whole argument is that without it our hope eventually runs out and
> > we are left with despair, unless we lie to ourselves against the
> > absence of hope.
[BM]
> Here Stathis already give a genuine comment. You are just admitting
> your argument is "wishful thinking".
[TC]
I was being too poetic ;) By "despair" I meant nihilism, the belief
that there ultimately is no meaning. I am arguing that the ultimate
source of meaning has to be personal. I'm just saything that my
argument is of the form, "If meaning is not ultimately based on the
personal God, then there is no true meaning, because..."
I realised when I was about 12 or 13 years old that there could not be
any ultimate meaning. I was very pleased and excited with this
discovery, and ran around trying to explain it to people (mostly drawing
blank looks, as I remember). It seemed to me just another interesting
fact about the world, like scientific and historical facts. It inspired
me to start reading philosophy, looking up words like "nihilism" in the
local library. It also encouraged me to question rules, laws and moral
edicts handed down with no justification other than tradition or
authority, where these were in conflict with my own developing value
system. Overall, I think the realisation that there was no ultimate
meaning was one of the more positive experiences in my life. But even if
it hadn't been, and threw me into a deep depression, does that have any
bearing on whether or not it is true?
Right! Until you realize there is no ultimate or absolute values you worry
that your values might be in conflict with those absolute values. I was
nineteen when I realized it - I was old enough to realize that most other
people were not going be pleased to hear about my discovery. :-)
Brent Meeker
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