Sunday, November 1, 2009

An Absurd God


The other day in class we discussed what life might be like if there was an absurd God that had created everything and, so far as we know, controlled everything as well (besides the supposed human free will of course). During this discussion, I had my own little simple minded thoughts about what the ethical world would be like and, how might my thoughts and everyone else's on the earth be different. After all, if we, supposedly now, have been created and everything is governed by what we think we know as a peaceful and loving God, then we look at this as being normal. But what if everything that we thought was absurd was indeed normal? Then that life would be cool too I guess, at least I think so because more people would be like me and like to do everyday absurd things like: walk in the cold with no jacket on (basically because I'm not cold), think barefoot-ness is cool, and think that sneezing and the hiccups are the two greatest things in the world. However, because I am supposedly still under the reign of the sensisble and reasonable GOD, all of my absurd "fun things" will remain absurd.

Speaking of everyday things, Camus touches on the fact that suicides are commited because we realize that we are indeed operating under habit and confess to ourselves that we can no longer handle it. He states that "Leaving naturally is never easy," which, I compare to an existential crisis. When I, at least, have an existential crisis, it is a moment where everything that I am doing seems redundant and, although for a purpose, more generally it feels as if I am doing it for nothing. Living naturally is hard because it requires us, or at least me, to go about doing those things that are required of me on a daily basis over and over and over again. And, although I can prove my freedom by going against all of these daily activities, I feel compelled to complete them in "loop" fashion from day to day. This results in me not being able to do other things, leading to my existential crisis or for some people, suicide. It's somewhat like Emile Durkheim's Anomic Suicide. Anomie is something a person goes through when they do not have the resources to reach their goals or their goals simply become unattainable. For those of us constantly reaching for something new, "outside of the bubble," outside of "living naturally" and want to go about things in a new way not the boring old normal fashion, suicide is seen as the quick way out.

3 comments:

  1. The idea of an absurd God doesn’t seem too farfetched. If God is indeed logical then where does murder, theft, and all other injustices in the world come from? I feel as though the concept of an adversary, or satan, also justifies the notion of God being absurd. This spawns from the God equation balancing itself out between ‘good and evil’.

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  2. I think that to assume all suicides are committed over the frustrations of a habitual lifestyle is a bit of a sweeping generalization. That seems to cover one aspect of suicide, and not the concept as a whole.

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  3. I don't think it really matters what kind of god "reigns" over humanity. We're free to choose what kind of god we think rules; we are also free to think that there is no god, and that there may be more than one god presiding.

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