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Nihilism - your thoughts

does a belief in nothing actually entail a conceptual reality / a belief in something?
is it a positive philosophy, or does it have the ability to be?
what implications does this have for atheism, and philosophy / existence in general?

to sum up my thoughts....
yes
yes
positive for the individual (non) believer, and in the macro... assuming the resistance isn't the same as with the non-belief in a sky man.

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Permalink Reply by mthoreau on April 11, 2009 at 10:39pm

Honestly I've always considered Nihlism to be the philisophical equivalent of suicidal surrender to despair. How Nihlistic are we talking here? Big Lebowski Nihlism or Clockwork Orange Nihlism? I feel that it is neccessary to pass through Nihlism when forming an accurate understanding outside the confines of the world outside the confines of faith, but I see no reason why a healthy person would linger there. Just because we don't have a deity to give us a purpose doesn't mean that life is meaningless.

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Permalink Reply by cj the cynic on April 14, 2009 at 4:09pm

Nihilism doesn't have to be negative. The idea that nothing has meaning or purpose can even be positive, depending on whose perspective it is. I consider nihilism to be neutral. It is only stereotyped as being full of despair and negativity. Atheism is often stereotyped the same way, doesn't make it true.

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Permalink Reply by cj the cynic on April 14, 2009 at 4:12pm

Yes, I think a belief in nothing can be a belief in something.

Yes, whether nihilism is positive or otherwise is up to the individual.

I think nihilism has the implications of strict rationality, even for those who are already atheists.

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Permalink Reply by Rev Hellbound Alleee on April 18, 2009 at 10:57am

Nothing doesn't exist. How could you believe in nothing, unless you have no belief? There never has been, nor will there ever BE, nothing. Nothing is not a thing, it is No Thing. It is not darkness. It is not what you see when you close your eyes. There is no "it." I don't believe in nothing, because there is nothing there. You can say "I believe in a Nothing," but you have just put a name on something and called it "nothing," which is incorrect.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on June 5, 2009 at 8:27pm

Makes me think of "the nothingness" from Neverending Story. Scared the crap outta me as a kid

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Dumain on April 18, 2009 at 11:22am

What do I think? Nihilism is childish and reactionary.

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Permalink Reply by no0ne on April 30, 2009 at 9:18pm

I've been told the same when I've 'come out' to people as an atheist.

Why do you think it's reactionary, and in what way (like, against church, society, 'reality', etc.)?

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Permalink Reply by Riaz Ahmed Shah on April 18, 2009 at 1:20pm

i think that the nihilism being mentioned here ,is about the lack of meaning or purpose in the universe ,or the fact that Values per se don't exist.i wrestled with Nihilism immediately after exorcising the god hypothesis out of my world view.Even now there are days when nihilism as a world view pops in my head ,albeit briefly. It was only later that i realized that existentialist nihilism or moral nihilism might possibly be true ,but as long as we exist and reason ,we might as well create meaning in a positive way about the universe.Even if there is no particular purpose to the universe we should find one to strive to.

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Permalink Reply by Dionysus on April 18, 2009 at 2:45pm

Life is too beautiful and too ugly to be indifferent. How you experience it may vary but allowing it to embitter you into indifference is to narrow your view of a much broader dynamic taking place on a much grander scale.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Mo. on July 15, 2009 at 12:37am

I agree with this thought and those from Raiz. To my ignorant mind this is a central theme of existentialism. Our life here may ultimately be meaningless to the Universe but we must chose to be engaged in working toward some form of meaning and betterment. Otherwise, we resign ourselves to emotional and physical death. This later course is not a formula for evolutionary success.