Q&A: Is Atheism “Supposed” to Lead to Nihilism?
Is Atheism “Supposed” to Lead to Nihilism?
Question
Hello, Rabbi,
As written in the title—or in other words, is an atheist basically a “nihilist in denial”?
Oh, and one more thing! (which I remembered right after writing the last line)
I saw a video by Dr. Roy Yuzvitz, in which he hosts someone named Uriya Mevorach, and there they talk about the subject of postmodernism.
In the video she claims that the sentence “There is no absolute truth” is not self-contradictory. (Because there is no absolute truth, but there is another kind of truth.)
The explanation of that sentence sounds to me like nothing more than linguistic pilpul, because how could we agree on the definition of that other truth if everyone sees the definition differently? And if we do happen to see the definition the same way, what practical difference would it make?
+ Why does it seem that you don’t care when people sometimes don’t refer to you with the title Dr. (unlike others, who seem to get angry about it)?
Thank you very much, Rabbi Dr. (you can connect that to the opening line too).
Answer
As far as I’m concerned, you can omit all the titles. Not Rabbi, not Dr., nothing. Michi is also perfectly fine.
I didn’t understand the nihilism question. I think that an atheist, theoretically, cannot be committed to morality, because valid morality presupposes God. In practice, there are quite a few atheists who are committed to morality—not less than believers, in my estimation. But they are inconsistent. You can assume they are covert believers, or assume they are confused about morality.
There are thousands of vague claims about postmodernism. They themselves are part of postmodernism. Once you define what that “other truth” is that is not absolute, I’ll be able to respond more specifically. I’ll already tell you in advance that it will be one of two things: either uncertain truth (from our perspective, because we have no way of reaching certain truth), and then there is nothing postmodern here at all. Alternatively, truth that has several aspects (is complex), and again there is nothing postmodern here at all. Or else there is no truth, in which case this is ordinary skepticism, again with nothing new. In short, there is no such thing as postmodernism as a philosophical view. It is an atmosphere and a culture, not a philosophy. What does exist is a great many confused people tossing statements into the air that have no real content (either trivial or nonsense). See my lecture: Is There Religious Postmodernism: