HW # 4 Comment on Alicia's post

Dear Alicia,



I really liked your reflection about the part religion plays in people's lives in response to Banach's lecture on existentialism, part 2. As you say, for religious people essence has to come before experience because essence, that is our human nature and our values, comes from our god if we believe in one. God is the creator of all things.



You seem to be believing the way I do that people created religion because it gives explanations and makes life less scary in the sense that it makes believers feel less alone in the universe. It also makes death more acceptable by offering heaven as a great place to end up.



As you say, not believing in a god can seem lonely, and I guess that is why existentialism can seem depressing to some people. But it is also depressing if people use their religious values to make themselves feel superior to people from other religions or to people who have no religion.



I really liked your quote from Tuck Everlasting. That was a great book to make readers understand why death is necessary because to live forever on earth would be hell. No one would ever want to stay at one age for ever. Imagine staying in kindergarten for ever or in high school for ever. Humans need to grow. Our lives need to change.

I don't know if god exists and if one does whose god would it be? As you say, we can't know for sure about the existance of god, but we can have faith in humanity because we can see it around us. When so many people took action against Hitler, including Sartre who joined the resistance in France, that was a good thing. We know that. Fighting evil or feeding starving children is a good thing. We can't live perfect lives but we can try to develop our talents and contribute in some way to humanity. That is what I understand to be using our freedom to create our essence. If we feel at the end of our lives that we have made an effort and not let humanity down, the death won't seem that scary.

Your quote from Tuck Everlasting was so good. "Don't be afraid of dying, be afraid of the unlived life" is a great existentialist line. The idea is to use our freedom to create our values and live our lives so that when death comes we won't have regrets.