Nihilism – Wilf W
Across Europe, the amount of people over 16 and under 29 who have faith in a God or religion has gone down drastically, with a BBC survey showing that in Europe, the BBC said that only 1 in every 4 people have a religion, meaning that 75% of people have no religion, this state of mind is known as Nihilism, or the belief that there is no God, no way to live good or bad, that greed can be as good as charity, and nothing we do in this life will matter after death. This belief may sound bad, and it can definitely be argued that the lack of religion is having a negative effect, however, nihilism represents much more than what it is defined by in the dictionary, and this article will delve deeper into nihilism.
So, what is nihilism?
Nihilism is derived from the Latin word nihil, meaning nothing, and ism, which means ideology. It is the belief that no matter what we do nothing matters. The ideology states that in the end we will die and then there is nothing, no perfect heaven to live in and no difference in the afterlife of a ‘good’ person compared to a ‘bad’ one. This Ideology can lead to questions such as “why are we here”, and “what is the point”. A prominent German philosophers backed up Nihilism, his name was Friedrich Nietzsche. He argued that nihilism was inevitable, and that it would be better to embrace it and create a new and meaningful world view. He is famous for the quote “God is dead”, Nietzsche believed that adopting nihilistic beliefs would be both terrifying and freeing, and we would need to embrace the fear to be able to see the world in a new way without religion. This view is being proven true as the amount of people devoid of religion has increased massively. Another German philosopher named Friedrich Jacobi argued against nihilism, and was incredibly critical about it in his writing, Jacobi thought that it would devalue our sense of self by explaining away religion.
Many people criticise nihilism for stopping life from having meaning, and most people say that having a God gives life cause, which is a good thing. They say that nihilism
causes depression and causes people to commit ‘bad’ acts like drinking. However, if you look past nihilisms more obvious bad side, you can see that it doesn’t hinder or prevent people from achieving stereotypical things and instead is a driver for them to achieve what they want. It creates freedom of the mind and allows us to question our pre-established beliefs, such as the legitimacy of religious practise and how much of religion is just a figurehead of what religious leaders want. Nihilism also helps peoples self-esteem, by taking away the expectations of society and creating a sense of fulfilment in what you are doing.
Sources: Bing Videos, Nihilism: History, Philosophy, Theories (verywellmind.com), Sophie’s World, Jostein Gardner
by Wilf W
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