Existentialism and the non-Despair: You can see from these few reflections that nothing could be more unjust that the objections people raise against us. Existentialism is nothing else but an attempt to draw the full conclusions from a consistently atheistic position. Its intention is not in the least in plunging man into despair. And if by despair one means-as the Christians do-any attitude of unbelief, the despair of the existentialism is something different. Existentialism is not atheist in the sense that it would exhaust itself in demonstration of the non-existent of God. It declares, rather, that even if God existed that would make no difference from its point of view. Not that we believe God does exist, but we think the real problem in not that of his existence; what man needs is to find himself again, and to understand that nothing can save himself from himself, not even valid proof of the existence of God. In this sense existentialism is optimistic. It is a doctrine of action, and it is only by self-deception, by confusing their despair with ours that Christians can describe us without hope.-Jean-Paul Sartre
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 21:30:22 +0000
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