After class last week I stopped Dr. J and asked her about God. First of all I believe that the idea of and for God, in the existential sense, can be replaced with absolute. This is what I think to be the common ground between Christian existentialists and their atheist counterparts.
The next point that we talked about was whether or not the ideas were even more closely related then that. If God was created by man (or at least the way we perceive God) then wouldn't the ideas of both theories have originated from the exact same thing historically? Also, if Yahweh is the right way then the ideas of atheism that are discussed by the existentialists then their ideas were borrowed from that of religions. Both view points focus on the individual; as long as they take responsability for their actions, or at least believe they play a part in their telos, then I believe the two concepts to be compatiable.
Patrick's and Phang's examples of the cloud and the two ideas connected and being intertwined seems to have a strong likelyness in my view. While their core beliefs are not the same they originated from one another, and in order for something to exist and take meaning its opposite must as well.
Does this make sense and do you agree? Can God be interchanged with the absolute? Do these ideas stem from the same concept? Are these even some of the links that atheist and Christian existentialists have in common?
God is an absolute, so isn't obvious that God can be interchanged with the absolute? I'm completely confused about this post because I understand God to be an absolute.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the cloud idea, I was talking to Phong, and think he meant that there are two different clouds (Christian and Atheist Existentialism) that stem from the same ideas, such as having the focus on the individual. However, the two different clouds result in different results due to interpretation.
I guess I just don't understand what you are trying to get at. I see everything you said as obvious since Atheism still recognizes the possibility of the existence of God.
Well, God is an example of the Absolute. But in any sense, if we were to use the two systems of ideas, then both of the clouds were rooted in an absolute. But in the atheistic sense, the God is in the individual. In the faithful sense, then God is rooted in a different realm. Both are in absolute relation to the individual. But while both clouds are similar in systems and idea. There are differences in ideas, but for the most part, the interpretations should be completely comparable. For instance, the values that both system places on life should almost be the same.
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