Essays and contributions are listed in order of date received and posted at the discretion of your friendly editor and part-time autocrat, Freydis. The only editing will be for length if necessary. If you have something to add send it < here >. Also specify how you want credit (name?, e-mail? etc.) if any posted.

By my rough estimate about 60% of the letters sent to me express their appreciation and approval of what they’ve read in Nihilism’s Home Page (the CounterOrder), about 30% are either unsure about or want to know something more, and about 10% disapprove of it. - Freydis, June 2008.

Freydis,

I was recently was going over your site as i have a couple times in the past.

I'm still amazed everytime I read the essays on the site how refreshing it is to read something coherent and objective about all the bullshit that we're fed everyday. If most people would sit down and honestly questioned their beliefs for a few minutes a lot of religious americans (86% according to a survey i read) would probably come to similar conclusions.

The problem with most people is that instead of taking their religion seriously as an explanation for reality, they hold onto it blindly, because of some emotional "fix". I was born and raised a xtian and when I began questioning the beliefs that my parents held so blindly, my questioning was met with considerable hostility. I began to wonder, "how can people believe something without questioning it? Truth is, by definition, something that simple questions should not break down, but should rather enforce." So now when I come into contact with someone that believes in some form of metaphysical concept, I ask them to give me a clear definition of it. Most of the time they can't, and when they do, it is generally self-contradictory, or has circular logic. I finally realized that my parents hated me questioning their beliefs because they couldn't answer my questions and didn't want to think about it. Possibly because the questions that I brought up actually made them question it. And they wanted to have faith in it. Faith is such a useless concept. Wanting to believe something means nothing, otherwise a lot of wacky shit would be true. As kierkegaard discovered, you can only have faith if there is already a lack of evidence.

Enough of my history, I'm sure you don't want to hear my life story. I just want to congratulate you for having a nice, organized web site. I also want to congratulate you for having the one of the most common sense websites on the internet. Thank you for your time and for your enjoyable essays.

Regards,
Steve

[January 26, 2009]

I have truly been enlightened by the anti-philosophy. Thank you for giving me the answers to the questions that no god, or politic can even dream of answering for me. I had always known there were others out there like me that sought something beyond the moral squabbles of humanity. Your purpose is the truth, and at 20 years of age, I am far ahead of anybody around me, know matter what there age, education, or status may be.

 I know the truth.

Thank you.

~Krysto~

[January 2, 2009]

Translation of the Die letzte Glocke (The Last Bell),  from the original German into English by Arimahn, October 2008:

Sunshard, sickly, rains down on glass
Shadow phantoms jump from concrete to asphalt
Dirt, stench and human queues drift by
And I, yes I, are one among many

Just run, little humans, circle (around the) streets
Increase your goods and chattels
But soon, yes soon, they'll come

Droning clouds, black as Death

Ever faster the wheel is turning
(with seeing eyes...)
Ever deeper is the fall
(... you are fleeing into your own tomb)
Ever farther swings the scythe
(No escape)
Until the yield is rotting on the ground, plagued by rats

The last bell, it crashes
Down into the dirt of this world
[Her] bronze tone sounds mute
Into the dust
The last bell, it crashes/ /down into reality

Neon-Sea, diode-glow, cascades full of sound
Confusion and Temptation give an unholy escort
Leave me be, I'm not buying, not even your happiness

Because I, yes I, can reveal your lies

Just build your Babylon
Hybris' flight is rising higher
But soon, yes soon, cracks will rend this

Sick fundament of Earth's bones

[For] Two thousand years it gave the beat
Surrounded by cannons, (in) the blood of (the) extermination camps
Paved with the gold of our freedom it plays the song

Of assimilation, just hear it scream for your soul

How ever we're to turn and twist
Nothing's to do, seal the old casket
Whatever we aspire to, long for in pain/

Goodbye, occident, we extinguish the candles

If you just knew or imagined...
All the illusiveness is capturing you
But I, yes I, walk unseen

[A] Burning torch among the madness of this world

Ever louder the roof is cracking
(With hearing ears...)
Ever farther the pillar is swinging
(...you entomb yourselves in a house of sand)
Ever faster the beam is falling
(Dust to Dust)

And from it's tower the symbol of the occident comes tumbling down

"Peace on earth?"
...this makes me laugh!
Let this phantasm spark the fire!

To all of man's liking.

What do I care for the world you are ripping apart?

I just wanted to thank you for the information on your website. I never truly understood the meaning or purpose of nihilism until now. This is exactly how I have come to perceive myself and the world around me. It is good to know that I am not the only one that thinks the meaning of life is simply existence and that almost everything around us is completely irrelevant. Only a free mind can come to this realization. We are few and must spread the word to devolve our species. If not, all that will be left is human remains, gold bars and nuke casings.

Thanks again, Joel W. [June 2008]

Art by Philip Tarr, March 2008

Beliefs, by Paty Harden

Meaningless things,
Surround Human Beings,
Cloud up their Minds,
Confine them to Binds,
What do words mean?
And what do thoughts say?
When they take your whole life through monotonous Days?
Dissimulate fear, Believe in a God,
A reason to breathe and resume senseless Thoughts,
Cling to Beliefs, For they're all that you got,
Take off your vizard and cry when you're Caught,
Beliefs are the things that you think that you know,
Seeds in the fallow of a mind you can sow,
Beliefs are the things with potential to grow,
Go to the market and make yourself blow.
Soak in ideas, continue to till,
Beliefs spur a passion that's willing to kill.
Disown your brother, because he is gay,
Follow the rules that you have to obey.
That fellows' religion, is Different from Mine!
Ignorant fool, My God's more Divine!
The trees stand tall, they think not at All,
And when their time comes they surrender and fall,
Pertinacious till' they,
Succumb to a Pall,
Humans are desperate and grasp at it all,
Surrender your feelings, surrender beliefs,
Surrender ideas of duality,
Have a mind willing, For Eternal Release,
Until this is done you will never be Free.
[October, 2007]

Hey there, fellow rationalist,

I just wanted to write to you and let you know how thoroughly impressed that I am with your counterorder site. It is engaging, enlightening, compelling, and just simply mentally stimulating. Your essays are concise and are in every way copiously logical and irrefutable. We agree on every single point, yet I couldn't have said or written anything more proficiently than you did. I'd love to see a theist try to battle your wit and concise arguments!

Not to just kiss your fanny incessantly here... but seriously, I've done quite a bit of reading and research myself on nihilism and the quest for rationality in general, and few have had as compelling arguments and overall quality presentation of the ideology as yourself. You really have a strong command of language and the said rhetoric, and should be published. I'd certainly buy a copy.

Please don't feel obligated to write back. I am writing in extollment! Thank you so much for your site, and of course all of the years' worth of hard work and thought that you have put into it. I'm thoroughly relishing!

CM in NJ [2007]

"When nothingness is shown, Limitlessness is the apparent nothing"

-Philip Tarr, 2007

The droning of Human Animals could resemble music.
Sounds of industrialization mimic there internal dialogue
Their purpose. Building a factory of thought's driven by machines.
Droning, Droning on. We cant escape it's blast furnace of age old ideals.

-Philip Tarr, 2006

I don't want a false reality/ one with an American sponsored mentality/
black and white is not my fixation/ Ill never recite to that dictation/ No
absolute power - No absolute truth- those who have the most answers often
have the least proof - No absolute meaning is needed to find the absolute
reason why we live or why we die- Uniform ideas are set in stone/the descent
of free thought is systematically intone/ my path will avert the simulacra/
my arms will not carry the burden of mans law- We all have the ability to
question/ thoughts are unrestricted they move freely from detection/ a
horrifying glimpse of our existence/ a possible future is that of
independence?

Music lyrics from Doomed Youth, 11.01.07

I'd like to start off by saying that I enjoy reading the CounterOrder, and I agree with most of the points you've listed.

After reading the section titled "Death to Purpose," you noted "if your just going to die then what's the point of anything?" Now being a nihilist myself, I completely agree with this statement. The only question I have to that statement is basically what should determine the level of danger we subject ourselves to? Disregard for our well-being is self-destruction, it's having a death wish, not nihilism. Is it that we should be nonchalant about life/death, and ourselves in the bigger picture? This is what I understood from your quote. Please explain if possible.

mikhail

Well, my message wasn't quite that simple. By asking the rhetorical question I was trying to convey that if all you live for is to die then there's no (other) point to anything you do in between now and the end point. So no I don't think nihilism has to be a death wish for the self at all. The physical body is of limited endurance but we as intelligent human beings exist in other realms besides just the physical body, we have minds and a consciousness and we can think up new ideas, ruminate on existing ideas, invent, destroy and pass on both our genetic material and our mental ideas as well. Don't sell your existence short, use every minute of it!

Freydis [15.11.06]

Greetings,
               I am currently studying sociology at an advanced level in education and recently came across a criticism of post-modernism; that it contradicts itself in that it refuses meta-narratives but it itself appears to take the meta-narrative form. I was hoping for an explanation on what the nihilist stance was on meta-narratives and whether promoters would consider nihilism an overall, all-encompassing movement itself?

All help appreciated as a matter of interest.

Sincerely,
Anonymous interested individual

Hi,

The more I've studied postmodernism the less substance I can find in it. Any objective analysis of the whole postmodernism language and set of ideas has to conclude that it is either a bad joke taken seriously or one of the greatest academic frauds perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.

So to answer your question then, I'm not sure what a 'meta-narrative' is really supposed to mean and it would undoubtedly depend on the context anyway, but I'm going to assume the primary intent is to try and construct an all encompassing explanation of the universe and events in general. In that regard nihilism leads us to a few basic conclusions. Much of what we think of the world and events around us is based on perceptions, impressions that are often misleading or just plain inaccurate. Consistent rules, physical laws, are evident and significant but any all-encompassing purpose or design of things is not evident. In other words no ultimate purpose to anything on a cosmic scale can be found. Now we can certainly go farther than that but for now I'll just stop there.

Freydis [04.06.06]

Hi

I'm currently doing a university essay on consumerism. I was interested to know your opinions on the role consumerism and materialism play in the part of nihilism. I understand that consumerism is only a very tiny fragment of the nihilistic ideals but was interested to know what you thought consumerism has done to western society in general.

Many thanks, Karen

It seems to me that consumerism as we think of it today has its origins in the post WWII era of industrial production surplus, the result of mass production techniques and the commodities made available by a worldwide transportation system coupled with the socio-political need to maintain minimal unemployment. In the 1950s America propaganda pushed on the public made it clear that the duty of every citizen in a 'free' capitalistic country was to buy as many products as they could. Not surprisingly a materialistic consumer driven society emerged and has been refined over the decades since then. Consequently, the dominant value system is structured upon spending and acquiring money and increasingly the morality of good and bad are measured using dollars.

The beauty of this new morality is the quantifiable nature of it. This is a radical departure from all known previous moral orders that have been mostly arbitrary having been based on habit and tradition with the express, if often unstated, purpose of keeping things from changing.

This is a remarkable development in human history but it clearly leaves much to be desired since as we know capital is a sticky substance - it makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

That this new morality is materialistic, quantifiable, and often merit-based and change friendly is not undesirable, and indeed these qualities are an inevitable consequence of rational development. Rather, the source of the problem is that the equation here is incomplete. The consumerist, capitalistic value system is circular and self-referential; it fails to include the negative externalities of industrial production, for example. Nor is it able to include intangible qualities such as beauty or friendship. Further, the moral foundation of this value system is based on a tautology in that rich is good and poor is bad, that winners win and the losers lose and the winners are perceived as being inherently better than the losers – a flawed interpretation of Darwinism twisted and perverted to substantiate a preordained conclusion.

The value of money is not being questioned or even being measured in a valid context. People structure their entire lives based on the search for monetary wealth (and the products it can buy), it is the desire for money just to have more money. The effort is pointless because it has no context just as consumers are divorced from meaning and a separate identity outside of the money loop. Consumers are strongly discouraged from finding or forming independent meaning and identity and especially from questioning the established value system of consumer driven capitalism, just as under more traditional moral authority codes.

Taking a grand view of events I have to conclude that the moral values of contemporary consumer driven capitalism are an intermediate stage in the progression towards a system that adequately includes human needs and the needs of the natural environment around us.

Freydis [24.03.06]

For me, nihilism, calls to mind mythology and the iconic monad of the Seraphim, an order of angels whose faces were forever concealed deeply in the folds of their wings. Everybody would like to see what lies behind the face of being, existence, truth, nihilism, et cetera, but we shall never see inside. Only the liar will. The wings are a shield and a lie form what would instantly kill us, or what would instantly drive us to kill ourselves.

Also the sun. Don't think you can get to the center, because you can't. Burn in it if you want to go.

The core of being is nothingness, which should transcend our terrible associations with nothingness -- the images and tones are of mythic stock, that they inspire awe and beauty in this waste we are mired in. We should always see wings even in the dark. I find pleasure in the idea that nihilism is an inevitable phase in the cycle of some mystical kind of human transcendence. I want to be able to call all beings nihilists, and believe that many know that they deny life or affirm it, in whatever actions or non-actions that characterize them.

I want nihilism to be the art of being. The awareness of an art of being.

Life is. Nihilism is.

But I could just as well be spouting bullshit to please myself, the pretender that I am. Why and what am I saying? Who knows who tells the truth, or how, as if it were possible that there was a set of truths to tell. This is life as it runs itself. No matter if you tell the truth, the truth cannot be told, only passively witnessed alone in the quick motions of a life that doesn't bow to adjectives.

There is no intimacy for those who deny life, just insanity and the unfulfilled lust for intimacy. Void. I don't want to act toward anything. I just want to die.

Poetry, art, homosexual crucifixions... ouch.
By anonymous, December 2005.

One of the interesting paradoxes inherent within nihilism is that is seems to promote individuality by suggesting that the individual doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Nihilism can work with existentialism as well as hedonism to form the ideal philosophy (or anti-philosophy) which centers around the individual's decision to reject authority (God, government, traditional thought, etc.) in favor of creative and critical thinking. Hedonism can indeed lead to enslavement since a person is capable of allowing his pleasures to ruin his life. However, responsible hedonism can lead to pleasure. Slavery to one’s compulsions is essentially hedonism gone wrong. Then again, does pleasure exist if it is contingent upon the immediate present? Since desires need to be fulfilled each time they arise, how can one be happy from the fulfilling of an immediate urge? Those same urges may come back and haunt you moments later. Does the self really exist, if a person is capable of changing his self to adapt to different environments? Many people try to be themselves which is a contradiction of the concept itself.

Happiness is every bit a societal construct as is love. Sex is instinctual; love is utopian. Similarly, seeking pleasure is instinctual; happiness is utopian. You cannot achieve happiness since it is transitory. Christianity states that eternal happiness comes when one lives a good, “Christian” life. However, people are incapable of being happy on a consistent basis, and therefore it is illogical to think that life after death allows the self to stop being human, and turn into some sort of vegetative angel-like state. Humans are imperfect and are capable of good and evil. In fact, it is silly that society tries to dichotomize everything: good and bad, moral and immoral, black and white, democrat and republican, etc. Humans are too complex to be categorized by those silly labels.

Nihilism is a foundation for which to build your own philosophies on. It is a rejection of morality, religion, rules, government, etc., all of which are attempting to oppress the individual and scare him into a life of compliance. A true self derives from critical thinking, personal philosophies, and an understanding of the hypocrisies permeating the world we live in. Embrace nihilism by letting go of preconceived notions. By John Mancuso April, 2005.

Thank you for your insightful article on nihilism. I always had a feeling that there was a word for the way that I felt about the world, and more importantly, people who felt like me. I just didn't know what it was. Thank you for clearing it up.
Matt [January 4, 2005]

By: a human, September 27, 2004

Hi,
just a question, how can you say from a subjective point of view that reality is what it is. I am what you may call a nihilist but ultimately how can anything, including reality been know to "exist". How do you know our senses are lying to us is that not possible.

And you mention faith. Ultimately no faith is credible, but ultimately can you prove that the Olympians gods, the Judeo-Christian God, Superman, or the Jedi or anything else cannot exist given our finite and ultimately pointless "understanding" of the "existence" around us?
Sam [July 30, 2004]

Our senses and also our human brains have evolved to fit a certain range of experiences and events. For instance the eye is receptive to a very narrow range of radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum but we can’t detect x-rays for instance. But as in the case of x-rays we can still deduce that they exist from the effects. Everything about realty is an issue of cause and effect, of deducing a source from an event. When these connections are shown to be consistent throughout time and space they are considered to be objective phenomena existing outside the realm of simple human perceptions.

Our senses do ‘lie’ to us, especially from events that occur outside the usual framework of expectations, but this ‘lie’ is only because every human sense has to be interpreted by the mind. The lie can be identified through comparisons and alternative sources.

It’s impossible to prove a negative, which is why religions still cling leech-like to so many human minds even in the 21st century. If I make up a fantasy that has no capacity to be checked or verified then how can you or anyone else prove it doesn’t exist? The question to ask is not 'how can we disprove one fantasy after another' but rather: 'who cares, what bearing and effect does the fantasy actually have on daily life?!'

Freydis

 PART ONE: Life in general.

 Life and death are two things in life, so to say, that come and go  regularly. But there are some conditions and circumstances that pertain to the forced death of someone. Also, the disputed "murder" of something. This is where the various subtopics will be introduced.

But to begin with death, we must first begin with the topic of life itself. Being a fragile, hopeless, and beautiful thing all at once, life can cause and effect several things. One of these is the absense of life, or mortality. An example of something it can affect would be other lives.

Technology and civilization have, through centuries of cultivation, made life coexistence and interaction much easier. But has this done less good than harm? While civilization has evolved, it has adapted to ways of justifying bloodshed for profit, killing in the name of freedom and peace, and murder for security and protection from "evil doers". Through civilized methods of living, humans have made it to where the human race must exist and be convenienced at the expense of others. This arrogance caused by the fascist that is nature creates this bottom line- We're all born to die. So in the case of living, is this the price we have to pay to exist? Is this the price others have to pay for us to exist? Will the human race return the earth to how it originally was, or will it descimate what it has already begun to destroy?

Rather than to focus mainly on the bad, the pros of human life on earth must be visited. Although we are all natural consumers, humans have found ways to help repair the damage done. Examples of this are recycling, conservation, dietary habits (such as vegetarianism), cleaning up trash/hazardous waste, and environmental protection. Although many of us care about the way the human race has affected the earth, a very small percentage of that fraction do anything to help.

Through civilization, human race has brought yet another important factor: society. Although societies are natural and have been around since the invention of language and creation of communication, the society of humans has been the one to advance the greatest. But again, has this advance done more good than harm? Of course we can't possibly go back into the past at this point, we cant do much to prevent it. Therefore, we're victims of life because we didn't choose to be born or choose where to be born. This is the problem with birth that strikes me as the most agrivating.

Modern human society (most specifically, the United States) has become a hectic race for power. Patriotism, religion, and discrimination have destroyed all aspects of dignity in human life and continue to fool us all with warped meanings and contradicting aspects. In just about every aspect of the business society, there is an example of how speed and quantity overcome quality and how all of this ties into the true essense of human life. Not only that, but hierarchial classes, despotism, and class struggle affected living conditions of the upper, wealthy, powerful and merciless, to the lower, poor, weak, and merciful. But what about the middle? The middle class is more of a pawn than anything else. It's played for it's "worth" and  then "dumped" into the lower class. Or maybe some individual from the middle class has the lack of self-conscience required to kiss ass and climb the  hierarchial ladder. The middle class is a filler, the gap, the fools of the  hierarchial system. The middle class is just there to take up space, they are what keeps the political system in any society regulated and pacified. Regardless, this is how the system has existed for centuries. Is this freedom, or is this oppression?

Moving on, I would like to explain the conception of the individual. A human individual is equipped with a mind and a body to assist the mind. I see the mind as the basic source of anything in the body mainly because it is where the individual is run and controlled. Without a mind, an individual cannot function. But what matters most of all is the human ability to form an opinion. Whatever the eyes see, the mind takes in. And whatever processes is the opinion. Sometimes, however, the mind can question what it sees. But if the mind sees no other alternatives, it sees it's opinion as factual law. Just like how the early human may have first perceived religion. They saw things happen around them and knew that they could not possibly do that, such as moving water, lighting, wind, fire, thunder, precipitation, etc. Thus, they came to the conclusion that there must be something out there with more power than them. When they felt helpless and insecure, they turned to that power as a sense of faith and security. But this out-of-contexted "OPINION" was manipulated by individuals who believed that this "power" could be used to set in line society and get them to believe and do anything that the leader wished. Dissent was rebelling against the Almighty Power!

Dissent was rare due to the problem of which there is either a lack of factual information (or information in general, just words without detail, proof or explanation of why or how), or something biased used in a way to careen your attention away from the underlying topic. This could be anything form a controversial issue that a majority of people would have some sort of poignant attraction (or detraction) to, to a wrongly or falsely investigated case in news. For example, there could be a homeless person who has a family and is sick of being left out on the streets with nothing, and they rob, kill or harm something in order to get what they NEED, not necessarily what they want. Coverage of this on the news may warp the real reason why they killed or stole, saying that they had an disease, mental illness, or that they're clinically insane. This would be a reason to lock them up in jail. Or, in the case of the NYPD, a reason to patrol and kill off all the poor striving just to live up to their stolen and false aspirations. But is this murder either way in any way justifiable?

By Andy June 28, 2004; also published at The Revolt Press.

Could you please tell me the difference between existentialism and nihilism.
Or direct me to where i could find the answer.
 - Melissa

Existentialism is a category of philosophy that deals with the individual and their struggle to interact in life and define what is real; it concerns the difficulties of existence, hence the name. Famous existentialists include Sartre and Kierkegaard. Existentialism constructs elaborate philosophical structures trying to define some basic terms and it can all get quite murky but basically existentialism concludes that everyone is isolated and life is just angst.

Existentialism and nihilism have similarities and differences. Existentialism starts with many of the same issues as nihilism such as defining real, the nature and purpose of existence and the nature of individual goals too. Nihilism at root is significantly simpler than existentialism because it rejects those philosophical constructions and the intangibles that create endless debate. I suppose the primary difference is that existentialists maintain a set of beliefs that eventually builds to state that unhappiness can be overcome but nihilism would maintain that unhappiness is either inevitable or irrelevant.

It’s difficult to provide a concise answer to you question, especially given the multiple views and prejudices floating around concerning existentialism and nihilism. Author Robert G. Olson, who wrote the book An Introduction to Existentialism, calls existentialism nihilism in effect but not in intent. I think that sums it up pretty well. Existentialism is really just taking the very long and torturous route only to get to nihilism in the end. - Freydis, May 2004.

i broke away from catholicism in particualr, christianity and organized religions in general, several years ago. and i left in search of, at first, other points of view... trying to create an amalgam of all the ideologies and theologies and philosophies out there... in search of that "golden mean".... imagine my surprise when i read your "What is Nihilism" essay only to discover that i'm a nihilist. that last paragraph really clinched it for me.

and here i thought i was onto to something original.
;)

the power is in our hands. to better this world, or to let it degenerate. i'm gonna continue checkin out your site.

thanks.
Erik Bauer
nihilist

I have a question. It may sound like a fundamentalist question but I am just curious and I need an answer. Do you believe, or think, or even doubt in your mind that perhaps Jesus existed? If the answer is yes, does he not warrant even just a nod of approval for what he tried to do. I have read the counterorder site and I keep balancing in between different perspectives. I mean, is religion really that awful? I know it's not a perfect system but it does seem to keep people's minds occupied and by applying the morals I think it can make the world a better place. I believe that the message Jesus gave out, which basically was "love thy neighbor as thyself" is a very universal message. Imagine if people followed that code, would that be such a bad thing? I find your writings to be very interesting and very logical in many aspects, though sometimes it seems you give in to your subjective thoughts. Please respond with any kind of answer, I want to be convinced.  From: anonymous (per request)

Those are some important questions to ask. As far as Jesus, I wouldn’t be blown away if some archeological evidence for instance turned up to show he was a real person. But the existence of Jesus doesn’t validate the Christian belief set. The supernatural events supposedly associated with Jesus can’t be proven nor can any of the promises made to believers in the Bible. Heaven, angels, all the mystical characters of the Bible, where do these things exist? How do they interact with reality? They don’t! We might as well believe in purple elves that dance around mushrooms and promise to deliver us to the magical kingdom of peace on Pluto after we die just as long as we have faith they are real. It’s all just the wild imagination of ancient writers and the misty eyed testament of preachers and zealots that perpetuate it all.

On the surface religion does seem to benefit people, for instance the religious tend to be more disciplined and friendly. But the reason they are nice is so that others will want to adopt their beliefs and the reason they are disciplined is to set an example as an ambassador of their belief set so to speak. Further these positive attributers are basically universal throughout the believers. So even the most far-out UFO cult or the most mainstream Christian believer they all will be acting this way. I mean this is in general, of course regardless of the group or belief your going to find a few jerks and a few crazies, etc. Even people that have no spiritual guidance can gain these positive attributes say like those that study marital arts. So in this case religion is just a focus for the mind, a reference point for people to balance their lives, a reference I might add that could be substituted with something rooted in reality and gain the same benefits.

But nonsensical beliefs should never be let off the hook – how many have needlessly died in religious wars? How many people did the Catholic church torture for heresy or apostasy or whim? Religion is an excuse, it uses morality to justify the unjustifiable and stifle dissent, to do things that no one would approve of otherwise – exploitation, violence, injustice, terrorism, suffering, and on it goes.

The message Jesus handed out is fine, I mean I agree, I think we should treat others as we wish to be treated too. But nobody needs Jesus to do that. Buddhism is basically the same, albeit a bit more extreme because it carries over to animals and plants and anything else that could be animate.

People are always going to fight over something, but why give them religion too, why another reason to divide into sides and go at it and make the world and everyone in it go through hell? I think it boils down to the fact that when people fight over rational things like say water-rights, then a solution is always possible. But when they fight in an irrational mode over things that can’t even be measured like ‘my God is stronger than your God’ then it never ends. How long have Muslims and Hindus been fighting in India? How long have Jews been battling Muslims? How many crusades have been fought under the Holy Cross? Enough already. Time to stop acting stupid and start thinking.

I hope that wasn’t overkill or excessive given your very reasonable question. Anyway, thanks for your letter.

Freydis 19.01.04

dEFY yOUR mIND

What is openmindedness, I struggle now to think a different way & in doing so i had an epiphony, defy your mind, what i mean by that is simply to think about somthing, analyze it, over & over & then try to think of a different way entirely. To constantly defy what you percieve reality to be in turn making yourself more open minded, & in doing so you may achieve a level of clarity like the great philosopher Socrates, but ironically in doing this, you actually see things as a child, because if you think about it logically, you are seeing things again for the first time as a child of mind, this may be bordering on what we deem insane in this cumbersome culture, but the great philosophers were pretty much defying how their culture thought ; paving the way for the next generation of free thinking peoples & alienating the majority of the populous who didn't like very much to be told they in actuality know nothing, and lived very humble, poor in wealth lives (albeit intel!lectually fullfilling) and hated by the prominent religions for trying to free peoples minds, instead of telling them THIS IS THE WAY THINGS ARE. Everything is conditioned in our society as well as others, because that is the way we learn, but can we go beyond this, can we see that maybe that was necessary to learn for awhile till you come to a certain point in your life, then realize this is only like that to get me to where I am now, now I have realized what life was like in reflection, and to see that I can easily become complacent in what i thought i knew by the pre conditioning our society has laid upon us.
It's funny, if someone asked a question like "Are we the toy of some alien creature etc", I would have said anything is possible almost instinctually, sort of laid onto us by such shows as star trek, but now that i actually analyze this statement, I was saying that simply to impress other people in what i thought was openmindedness, but did I actually contemplate this question beyond how we are taught to think, the answer of course is NO. But now as the epiphony passes, it makes me giggle in a childlike reverie and i can sit here in quiet contemplation for hours ( I think i finally have an understanding of the techniques of meditation, once I would have said what a boring way to spend your life but now i see it truly is contemplation), now yes i'm sure i may be called a lunatic by some, but I don't really care on how my thinking is viewed, i am however self conscious about the way i carry myself, how i sound, what i look like etc etc, which has all been conditioned into us,! Now you may ask yourself well isn't that just what life is, but why should it be like that, just because you were taught somthing, doesn't mean it's right and why should it, we talk of evolution , but how can we ever hope to get beyond this when we keep ourselves here as prisoners, hardly anyone questions things, we all just sit here complacently doing what we know. Do these things matter, caring on how your physical appearance attracts the opposite sex is very important in our culture, actually in analyzing it is the whole basis for why we do anything, besides essential survival instincts, which reproduction ironically falls under. Now what I have stated makes me somewhat vulnerable to being categorized as eccentric or bordering on insanity possibly as pre determined by our cultural unwritten laws.

What is openmindedness really, we try to give designation to a concept that is everchanging , and in some respect defies being labeled but of course the humane qualities in us force it to be given a label for terminology's sake, but how can you define the undefineable because the second we think of somthing else, such as the possibility that we could be the plaything of some alien entity, that it shifts, because now that can be an accepted thought & now to think that possibility isn't exactly openminded, it's not your thought, it was based on someone elses thought and we do not really have imaginations, only memory recall, plus what i'd like to call good accesorization which without would surely leave us devoid of any type of dynamic concepts or progress. Anyhow, contemplating that once alien concept is now an acceptable ponderance, as we learn from things such as Star Trek, which endeavors to think of itself as a parallel for what life could be like in some idealistic! society, but it is still stuck in what we consider human thought (probably cause we don't know anything else).

The philosophicity & relevance of this question I believe is to attain an understanding of why we are where we are & can't get past some of these initial concepts, so we are actually stuck in our evolution of the mind because we can't seem to get beyond the reproductive aspects and why these procreational ideas come into play are simply we fear death, so we want a part of us to go on, it is a struggle against death, living beings are all fighting nonexistence, and striving for immortality. You may ask yourself what is the point of being immortal, defeating time, it would seem to expand our knowledge, to learn more and gain a heightened sense of awareness. So we want infinite knowledge to achieve infinite power, but these are human concepts & we allow them to remain as they are, let's break society down (as much as I abhorr to categorize it is indeed human nature to do so ["Thou Shalt Not Judge" really, {note my sarcasm} ] the "intellectualls" or what they'd like to think !of themselves as, would understand and/or agree with my views. Some would discuss them with me and point what they think are flaws or whatnot and some would think I'm a moron that has no idea what he's talking about, among the common people, they'd either get bored of what I'm philosophizing and tell me so or tell me I am a deep thinker and then change the topic to the suberbowl. Now the "morons" or intellectually devoid, would think I'm crazy cause I'm just blabbering words or would just tell me to pray and believe in god then smile and offer more cookies. I am breaking this down to show the pertinence of it. It takes a majority to change a society, & unfortunately the intellectually enlightnened are in minority as they always have been, so it seems we will be stuck in a perpetual cycle of non-progression of mind.

By khorne

Hello!

No questions, no criticism!

Just a big thank you for having this web up! I finally found something worth reading in this trash internet world! I have no words to describe my delight when I found your page! I though I was all alone in this world; that didn’t really bother me though cause I don’t mind spiritual solitude. It just made me wonder and sometimes angry with human nature.

All the pages I’ve found in the past about Nihilism were just another illogical, mislead, hooligan commercial, signifying - once again with the archetype fear of death - a form of religion. That basically makes me sick!

So thank you! Thank you for your work, thank you for your effort and thank you for your time on this page!

Yours truly,
Alexandra N.S. [October 2003]

This website is a pillar of inspiration and support for me. I thank you for that. My hat goes off to you truthspeaker.
asylum seaker [September 2003]

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