The Turn
“If you believe in God, what may you hope for? Everything, or at least everything that really matters: the ultimate triumph of life over death, justice over injustice, peace over war, love over hate and happiness over unhappiness. ‘An infinity of happiness in an infinity of life,’ as Pascal put it…
‘What can people hope for who have never believed in God or who have ceased believing in him? Nothing—that is, nothing absolute or eternal, nothing beyond the “darkest reaches of death”—which means that all our hopes for this life, no matter how legitimate (less war, less suffering, less injustice) run up against that ultimate nothingness… This by no means prevents us from struggling for justice, but it does prevent us from believing in it completely or believing that its triumph can be permanent. In a word, Pascal, Kant and Kierkegaard were right: There is no way for a lucid atheist to avoid despair.’”
Sunday, April 12, 2015