Faith, Certainty and Doubt--Kierkegaard and c0nc0rdance

c0nc0rdance has castigated the story of Abraham and Isaac as a horrific triumph of religious certainty over rational doubt. I offer an alternate reading, taking a page from Soren Kierkegaard's book "Fear and Trembling." When viewed as existentialist alegory, rather than religious instruction, the story of Abraham and Isaac offers important insights into human nature for theists and atheists alike.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• existentialism
• Nietzsche
• Sartre
• meaning of life
• religious phenomenology

[AQGOAT24]

Interesting take on it. I am interested in reading more about existentialism, what books can you recommend to start out with?

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@AQGOAT24 It depends how familiar you are with philosophy in general. If you think you can tackle original material, Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling" and "Sickness Unto Death" are very good, as is Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "Ecce Homo." Sartre's "No Exit" and "Existentialism is a Humanism" are probably his best, IMO. There's a great course by the Teaching Company on Existentialism, which I highly recommend.

[2010ksaul]

-begs the question- doesn't mean -leads to the question? duly noted. Didn't Nietzsche go crazy before he died? hes the "God is dead" guy right?

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@2010ksaul Yeah, Nietzsche had syphilis, which made the last 10 years of his work VERY interesting indeed. And yeah, he was famous for saying "God is Dead", but there's a lot more to him than just that.

[2010ksaul]

Very well said, bravo:)

But it begs the question.. how does an atheist reconcile those very important, valid, and reasonable questions of existence/faith/purpose???

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@2010ksaul First off, and I'm sorry to be so pedantic about this, but that's not what 'beg the question' means. That phrase refers to a logical fallacy. You mean to say 'it leads to the question.'

And to that question, it's a very good one. Thankfully, atheist thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre have given very good answers, far more thoroughly and articulately than I could. In short, we must find our own salvation.

[SisyphusRedeemed]

@TheCrappyPhilosopher I didn't mean to criticize him. I tried to make it clear that I wasn't saying this is the 'right' interpretation, but rather an alternate interpretation. It's not in the text, but it is compatible with it.

[TheCrappyPhilosopher]

Sorry, but I just reread Genesis 22 (KJV), and there is absolutely nothing to suggest that Abraham is wracked with doubt, or that he is horrified by the prospect of killing his son, or that he loves him very much. Abraham is about as emotive as the Terminator.

Adding to the text to make it say something which it doesn't, and then kind of criticizing others for missing this is kind of silly.

[xchampx]

As a Christian, this was rather an intriguing video. Good one.

[Starcrash6984]

Gotcha. The story has a lot to teach us about ourselves. But the fact remains that it is found in a book written for religious instruction rather than a different book. Abraham was held up as an example of a godly man in the NT. While most of us are smart enough not to show such "faith" even if we pay lip service to it, there still exist people (such as the woman you mentioned who drowned her children) who draw a horrible lesson from it. I could enjoy it from a secular source, but not the bible.

[Stitchman3875]

@SisyphusRedeemed Don't forget Heidegger's Being and Time.

[Ch4osW4rrior]

Having watched the video I must say it's my least favourite of your talks, I still really don't understand what you were trying to say.

[AgApE010]

Kierkegaard is probably my favorite philosopher. A lot of other Christians who are bent on objectively defining their faith would be very liberated by his Concluding Unscientific Postscript, IMHO.

Great video, my friend.