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What do we Worship when ‘God is Dead’?
Finding meaning in the age of rationalism
I’ve been reading old children’s books to my daughter recently and it struck me how often the word ‘soul’ is used. A word we’re reluctant to utter in our rational, post-enlightenment culture. We are human processes, consciousness is a by-product and spirit is reduced to superstitious thinking.
I wonder what it means though when we mechanise ourselves in such a way. Many legal freedoms have been based on inalienable, God-given rights. Descartes argued animal rights were illogical because animals don’t have souls and similar rhetoric has been used to enslave and persecute human groups throughout the centuries. In fact, the same language of dehumanisation continues today in the way that tabloids and governments discuss migration or persecuted minorities.
If we are devoid of soul, then do we not open the door to philosophies that disregard the sanctity of each and every individual? This mechanistic view allows us to use others as a means to an end rather than something sacred in its own right.
God is Dead. And we have Killed Him
I think Nietzsche understood this when he said ‘God is Dead’ a phrase that has been misinterpreted and repeated by nihilists throughout the ages without the awareness of the gravity of…