/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7271212]

What writings could an atheist get the most out of from Soren Kierkegaard?

[Anonymous No.7271216]

The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates
Either/Or
Repetition
The Concept of Anxiety
Concluding Scientific Postscript
tbh

[Anonymous No.7271223]

>atheist

HOW

[Anonymous No.7271230]

>>7271212
He is not for you.

He was a Christian, and that is paramount in his works. Unless you're reading for aesthetic reasons, there is nothing in his writings that is for an atheist. If you want an attempt at secularization of Kierkegaard, you should read Heidegger, specifically Being and Time

[Anonymous No.7271233]

>>7271223
CELESTIAL

[Anonymous No.7271247]

>>7271212
you have to be older than 15 to understand him.

[Anonymous No.7271259]

>>7271233
WOOD NYMPHS

[Anonymous No.7271261]

I actually think atheists are a different type of person from theists. 'How do you know god exists' is such an odd question to me. Its called faith. When you have it, His existence is as evident to every moment as the fact of your self. I feel like atheists and theists live on different sides of an irreconcilable chasm. I cant imagine a life without faith, its essential to the experience of every moment & i cant imagine living 'without' it.

[Anonymous No.7271272]

>>7271261
I have faith in some things, just not Jesus. That's what I want to read Kierkegaard. He also seems like one of the very few Christian philosophers that takes philosophy in the correct direction. In general though I think Christians over-value faith to the point of making it stupid. There's proper limits for everything.

[Anonymous No.7271276]

>>7271272
Well thats good. A start. Eventually you'll probably arrive at jesus if you stick with it. You dont have to accept him right away, but it eventually becomes pretty obvious he was the son of god. Just keep reading the bible.

[Anonymous No.7271279]

>>7271261
>Its called faith. When you have it, His existence is as evident
I had faith in a deity once. A good long time. It was a struggle to justify it's existence in my life. Faith is not evidence, not fact. It's assumption and willful ignorance.
>I actually think atheists are a different type of person from theists. ... I feel like atheists and theists live on different sides of an irreconcilable chasm.
>I cant imagine a life without faith
Be brave. Both sides and the chasm are yours once you see things from here.

[Anonymous No.7271282]

>>7271230
This tbh. Atheists are incapable of truly understanding Kierkegaard, and even non-Christians won't truly understand what he's saying (and I say that as a non-Christian fan of Kierkegaard).

[Anonymous No.7271288]

Guys, faith and reason cannot be reconciled. Faith is beyond reason. So many people want to be purely rational today, and so they wilfully close themselves off to the possibility of faith. And there's something terribly sad and banal about that.

You're in a Kierkegaard thread. You should know this. For further reading, I recommend William of Ockham.

[Anonymous No.7271292]

>>7271279
See i cant even have a discussion with someone like this, who wants me to prove an obvious and integral part of my everyday experience. To me, god is part of everything like this phone is in my hand. Its that obvious. I cant communicate that to you, i cant prove it to you just like i cant describe the color red to somebody whos blind.

[Anonymous No.7271296]

>>7271212
'The Absolute Paradox' from the Philosophical Fragments.

[Anonymous No.7271298]

>>7271282

i disagree. I'm an atheist, and I understand kierk. just because I don't believe it, doesn't mean I don't understand it. if you think having a certain ontology betters your understanding of a given topic, I'd argue that. I'd say your ontology only really moderates what it is about a given statement/philosophy you believe, not what you understand.

- atheist who loves kierkegaard

[Anonymous No.7271304]

>>7271298
>i disagree. I'm an atheist, and I understand kierk.

[Anonymous No.7271307]

>>7271304

> rebuttal

kierkegaard would have hated you

[Anonymous No.7271309]

>>7271276
I've read the bible, it's bunk. I can completely forgive Kierkegaard's attachment to it given his time but if you actually go for that today your top kek. There are things far more worthy of faith and far more worthy of respect than your Jesus.

>>7271288
Absolute faith as Christians promote is retarded. Absolute reason as fedora's promote is slightly less retarded. It's a matter of balancing the two. For instance you need to have faith in yourself in order to succeed properly but that doesn't mean you should try to walk on water and throw out reason.

[Anonymous No.7271310]

>>7271282
Kek
>The memer

>>7271288
>Faith is beyond reason.
I have faith in real things. Faith works, faith in fictions has a problem one must leap to.

>>7271292
>See i cant even have a discussion with someone like this,
>So scared
Poor child.
>I cant communicate that to you
I used to watch Star Wars all the time. The force is a fun fictional device.
>i cant prove it to you just like i cant describe the color red to somebody whos blind.
This is an apt description of what you're going through, having never seen things from my point of view. You are the blind man, and I'm telling you it's just that your eyes are closed.

[Anonymous No.7271312]

>>7271307
>kierkegaard would have hated you

[Anonymous No.7271314]

>>7271309
>given his time
holy shit you really are retarded
kierkegaard was not one to follow society in that way
does it really scare you that a genius could believe in the bible without societal influence?

[Anonymous No.7271317]

>>7271312

B======D

[Anonymous No.7271324]

[Anonymous No.7271327]

>>7271324

10/10

[Anonymous No.7271330]

>>7271310
I can see your atheism has really enlightened you, calling me a child. this is the sort of human relations that people think is ok once they become atheists. Anti-social garbage. you say whatever youre inclined to say. Well guess what, im *inclined* to say i dont care if you ever find god, but my religion, my belief, my faith, compels me to defy my inclination and be better than that, so im going to control myself and tell you that i hope you find happiness, and im going to try to mean that and believe it, rather than succumb to my base inclinations. This is how civilization - the fruit of belief - works. I invite you to join us.

[Anonymous No.7271331]

>>7271324
>So much radical freedom
Said the willful prisoner.

He's such a dead end. Even Spinoza made more sense.

[Anonymous No.7271333]

>>7271327
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RdoufVtgQI&list=PLUj_rw-e0fTul7Q_-9IkSlemvWe4wiQiG

[Anonymous No.7271335]

>>7271331
>Said the willful prisoner.
So fucking deep

[Anonymous No.7271336]

>>7271331
>willful prisoner.

This is an oxymoron.

[Anonymous No.7271338]

>>7271312
>yfw these young atheist prodigies have 160+ IQs and will graduate a year early from top Ivy League universities

[Anonymous No.7271341]

>>7271338

[Anonymous No.7271342]

>>7271330
>this is the sort of human relations that people think is ok once they become atheists.
No, anonymous.
>im *inclined* to say i dont care if you ever find god
I was already Christian. I read the empty book. I was blinded with my eyes shut, now I see the colours.
>i hope you find happiness
I have. Immensely.

To clarify: Every child grows up, so when I use the word it was lovingly.

[Anonymous No.7271344]

>>7271336
This is a metaphor for a moron who locks himself up

[Anonymous No.7271345]

>>7271314
I'm aware Kierkegaard is not a typical Christian, from what I've heard he wanted to destroy the concept of a church and was probably the only Protestant ever to not believe in Solae Scriptura. From what I've seen I wouldn't even consider him a real Christian. I'd consider him a man that superimposed his own philosophy onto the religion.

Given that we know from historical study of the bible that contains outright fabrications. For instance the massive census in the New Testament that never happened, Yawheh as a Caaninite war God. And that almost every problem is being answered by philosophy or science, without the need to add a creator God, Christianity is a dying institution. It's numbers have been dropping steadily in all developed countries.

[Anonymous No.7271346]

>>7271342
>Immensely.
Oh, it shows.

[Anonymous No.7271349]

>>7271342
I've met happy people all over the world, i know plenty of them in fact. You know what they never are? Condescending. again, i hope you find god and love and happiness. You've been a jerk to me, but im not going to hold that against you. i aspire to be a better christian than that. I hope ive succeeded

[Anonymous No.7271352]

>>7271345
>And that almost every problem is being answered by philosophy or science
Oh lawd, my sides
never mind, I had thought you literate

[Anonymous No.7271354]

>>7271212
Kierkegaard had some okay ideas on the concept of selfhood, but I honestly got a better understanding of existentialism by reading Homestuck fan theories than I did by reading him

[Anonymous No.7271355]

>>7271292
God is part of everything like the pain you feel when you stub your toe. Sorry to say, but faith is an internal emotional experience, not an external physical object like a phone.

[Anonymous No.7271357]

>>7271355
Yes i know, i was saying its just as obviously real to me as the phone in my hand. It was just an awkward imprecise simile.

[Anonymous No.7271359]

>>7271349
>You've been a jerk to me,

No, I haven't. You've taken offense is all.

[Anonymous No.7271361]

>>7271352
And what problems are science and philosophy unable to answer that religion is able to?

hint: theology is an offshoot of philosophy. You've shot yourself in the foot. It's that theology has reached a dead-end, which is why the religions are evaporating.

[Anonymous No.7271366]

>>7271272
Having faith in God is the only defensible and sound faith.
>>7271279
Evidence and facts don't exist

[Anonymous No.7271369]

>>7271359
I'll pray for you. Dont mean that in a condescending way. I know it can sound like that sometimes. Christianity is a brotherhood of mankind under god, thats it. You'll be in my prayers.

[Anonymous No.7271373]

>>7271344
Or maybe you're just jelly because you're locked out ;P

[Anonymous No.7271387]

>>7271366
Nah, it's belief in the Trimūrti that really keeps things going. Once you realize the world follows the path of creation, destruction, and preservation you can pray to Vishnu and finally achieve the mokṣa your recycled jiva has strove for for all these millennia.

[Anonymous No.7271388]

>>7271212
>ITT anon pretends to believe in god like it's 1600

[Anonymous No.7271389]

>>7271361
Topkek this must be satire

[Anonymous No.7271391]

>>7271369
not that guy, but it's always condescending to say you're going to pray for someone who isn't religious.
>I'm going to summon the higher power because I have a relashin ship with him and you don't (lel) where I'm going to receive eternal ice cream and blowjobs and dopamine and you're going to burn in an eternal lake of fire as it currently stands, so I'm going to take the high road and be a truly GOOD, HOLY person and pray that one day you might be as spiritually evolved as I am
It's rustles me harder when someone says they'll pray for me than it does for someone to tell me to burn in hell

[Anonymous No.7271397]

>>7271361

[Anonymous No.7271407]

>>7271346
>>7271397
>The memer

You make these threads boring

[Anonymous No.7271412]

>>7271407
Yeah, cliche
>religion is so le silly shit
Is really fucking brilliant

[Anonymous No.7271425]

>>7271391
Fine i'll do it and not tell you.

[Anonymous No.7271431]

>>7271391
>tell edgy teens ill "pray for them"
>they sperg out like this
>am actually an atheist

[Anonymous No.7271474]

>>7271345
I'm a Protestant who doesn't believe in Solae Scriptura. I also just discovered what that phrase means, and it puts into words exactly what I disagree with.

So there are two of us now, buddy. Kierk and I

[Anonymous No.7271478]

>>7271431
This guy isnt me. Im actually praying.

[Anonymous No.7271479]

>>7271361
Philosophy came from Theology you subhuman mongoloid.

[Anonymous No.7271509]

>>7271479
Wrong.

Theology came from campfire stories
Philosophy came from people wondering where fire came from.

[Anonymous No.7271520]

>>7271509
The first philosopher in Greece was wondering about water actually. Funny enough most of the Greek philosophers either promoted the idea that the Gods did not control much of the world, were skeptics about God, or had a divine concept completely foreign to the standard religion (Pythagoras worshiped math for instance).

[Anonymous No.7271544]

>>7271230

This. You can certainly read him. You may understand him. You may be lucky enough, that through your understanding of his writings, you can create a hardened point against which to argue. But get something out of it?

You won't get anything out of it. He's The Existentialist, and Christian therefore. Being at once Atheist and in equilibria with SK is impossible. Heidegger tried, and it turned him into a Nazi.

>>7271331

I think you mean beautiful beginning. He's done wonders for my conception of being in and through time. You also have no idea what you're talking about. Slightly. Here's why:

Kierkegaard does not mean perfect free human will. He believes human will is subject to that of divine will. Human will appears and may be acted upon as free, in situo. It is however, all under the umbrella of divine will. Any path, branching and finite that human want or will could take, will happen as it will happen. Kierkegaard understood this. He also accepted and allowed for human motivation or decision making at any point in this time branch, as understood as free in that moment. What he
>also
saw, is that this entire timeline, when viewed from any point outside that time line, such as the perspective of God, with be singular. Crystalline. Clear. There is no deviation from it, and there never was, and there never would be and there never would have been. There only is.

He is not a slave of God's plan (though perhaps he is), merely an agent. An actor on the part of God. A knight of faith, with an ounce of telos, shaping course ahead through and by the will of God. the agent of that line, time.

>No prison.
>Only freedom.
>Through the service of the Lord

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid- Psalm 27:1

[Anonymous No.7271599]

>>7271544
>I think you mean bea... [etc.]

Nope. Willful ignorance. A vast waste of time imo

[Anonymous No.7271852]

>>7271261

How do you define god?

As far as I can tell, the 'essence' of the god thesis is that a man created the world. While I think the force behind the creation of the universe must be awesome and powerful--feelings not unlike religious awe--I just can't see how it's tenable to describe it as human, when we know basically nothing about it.

[Anonymous No.7272407]

>>7271852
>the force behind the creation of the universe
This is just the theistic meme running through our culture talking.
I kind of doubt the universe was created. The big bang is a handy starting point but there's probably, to my way of thinking, yet more universal happening before that event. Space and time is infinite.

[Anonymous No.7273137]

>>7271330
wew
e
w

[Anonymous No.7273161]

>>7271599
0/10

[Anonymous No.7273289]

>>7271212
As long as you're not some close-minded fedora tipper - all of them.

[Anonymous No.7273316]

whoever thinks atheists or anyone adhering to a different faith other than Christianity can't get anything out of kierkegaard is a fucking retard. his philosophy deals with so much more than that. sure, there's the surface reading that IS highly christian, but to take that at face value as being the only aspect of philosophy that kierkegaard has to offer makes me wonder why you'd bother reading philosophy at all. not to mention that it's questioned STILL TODAY as to whether or not he was fully devout, himself. he admits in his own fucking writing for god's sake that he's not a knight of faith

his writings are beautiful, and there's a reason he's considered the first existentialist. his writings, even without the incorporation of god, have so much to say regarding nihilism, OP. just read him, fuck /lit/

[Anonymous No.7273906]

>>7273316
His philosophy is centered around faith in God, denying that and it largely devolves into the arbitrary-living Nihilism dubbed 'Existentialism' that arised in the 20th century.

It's integral.

[Anonymous No.7273965]

>>7273906

> denying
> arised

while it unquestionably is integral to his philosophy, it is by no means necessary to adhere to the same ontology in order to understand or appreciate it. By that rationale, one could never understand Plato without believing in the forms.

[Anonymous No.7275196]

>>7271312
MOMS GONNA FREAK

[Anonymous No.7275405]

>>7273161
>Religion isn't a big waste of time
HAH!
0/10
I KNOW it is.