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Ch. 13 Hindson - notes
Introduction to Christian Thought (D) (Liberty
University)
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13. Nihilism: Nothing Matters
Everyday Biblical Worldview
13Nihilism: Nothing Matters
Imagine being born in a room that is about twenty feet square. The room is decorated nicely and
contains a comfortable bed, a nice couch, lots of toys, a small bathroom, two sets of clothes, and three
books with information about the room. One book describes the fiber of the sheets on the bed,
contrasting them with the fibers of the couch material. Another book is a made-up story about one of
the toys coming to life and living in the room. The last book is a book about what may hypothetically
be outside the room. Food appears at the same place three times a day. It is always the same meal:
potatoes, rice, chicken, and a large glass of water. You aren’t sure how it gets there, but it is always
there. Now imagine that this room has no doors or windows and you are stuck there for your entire
life.
It is likely that you would begin to wonder how the room came to be and how you were placed in the
room. Maybe you think something outside the room created it and placed you there and you long to
know more. The toys, sheets, food, couch, bathroom, and bed then become gifts from something
outside the room. You begin to cherish the items as gifts. Then you read the book about the fibers of
the bedsheets and you wonder how these fibers came together to make one solid sheet. Perhaps, you
think, I can cut up a sheet and dissect the fibers to understand more. You think this will lead to
knowledge about what placed you in the room and gave you these gifts. After doing this, you learn a
lot about the sheet, but you still don’t feel that it helped you discover what placed you in the room
and where the room originated. So you begin to do the same thing to every other item in the room to
better understand it and learn about the origin of the room and of your life. Yet through months and
years of study, you feel no closer to learning who put you in the room.
You decide then that the answer cannot be found within the room but must be outside of it, so you
begin to try your best to find a way outside of the room. You take every toy, piece of furniture, and
utensil that you have to try to create a hole or access out of the room, to no avail. All that you are left
with is a damaged room with no escape, but worse, no explanation. If there is no way out, then you
decide that there is nothing but the room. Nothing exists but the room and the contents inside.
Therefore, you decide that you were foolish to ever think that someone put you in the room. There is no
reason for you to be in the room. There is no purpose for the room’s existence. Thus, there is no
purpose for you. Despair enters your heart and the objects once viewed as gifts are now viewed with
disgust, reminders of a meaninglessness that fills your heart. You realize that you must live out the rest
of your days in these four hundred square feet of meaningless existence until you finally die.
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Such is nihilism.
The universe is the room and humankind is you. Everything else represents the objects and resources of
the universe.
Nihilism, named for the Latin word for nothing, nihil, asserts that nothing within the universe can
provide purpose, but only something beyond it. Yet nihilism simultaneously believes that there is
nothing beyond the universe. Therefore, the nihilist is left only with meaninglessness. If there is no
purpose to life, then there is no value in humans, in morals, or in anything else. Nihilism at its core
strips the value away from everything. As a matter of fact, even calling nihilism a philosophy is a
paradox. If nihilism is a denial of everything, then it is also a denial of worldview and philosophy itself.
Nothing is the only thing that nihilism endorses. Everything is nothing.
Before Nihilism
As with most philosophies, nihilism is the next story built upon an ancient foundation of Western
philosophy. Philosophies usually do not emerge spontaneously but are a “next step” or an evolution of a
previous philosophy. Perhaps “evolution” is the most correct term, as nihilism is inherently the child of
naturalism. Before nihilism must be naturalism, because the foundation of nihilism is the assertion that
nature is all that exists. There is no room for the supernatural; only that which can be tangibly
understood or scientifically proven, per the scientific method, can exist. This ultimately removes God
from the equation. James Sire writes:
But how does one get from naturalism to nihilism? Wasn’t naturalism the enlightened readout of the
assured results of science and open intellectual inquiry? As a worldview, did it not account for human
beings, their uniqueness among the things of the cosmos? Did it not show human dignity and value? . . .
For [most naturalists] there is no route to nihilism.
But for a growing number of people the results of reason are not so assured, the closed universe is
confining, the notion of death as extinction is psychologically disturbing, our position as the highest in
creation is seen either as an alienation from the universe or as a union with it such that we are no more
valuable than a pebble on the beach. In fact, pebbles “live” longer! . . .
Nihilism came about not because theists and deists picked away at naturalism from the outside.
Nihilism is the natural child of naturalism.[38]
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Naturalism says that all that exists is nature. Humanity is a product of evolution and is nothing but a
superior animal species. In the vast arena of the universe, which no one knows how the expanse of,
humanity is of no more significance than the grass in a field. Though naturalism purports to have
arrived at a more logical, rational understanding of the universe, it has only left naturalists feeling
desperate and depressed. Any explanation of purpose has utterly faded with the rejection of an
explanation outside the natural world. Nihilism, the belief in nothing, is inherently the “child of
naturalism.”
The Birth of Nihilism
The beginning of nihilism as a philosophy is credited to a man named Friedrich Nietzsche. Surprisingly,
Nietzsche was the son of a Protestant pastor, raised to be pious and fully devoted to God. Brilliant from
a young age, Nietzsche enrolled in a university as a student of philology, which is the study of literature
and language, especially as they relate to cultural history. He excelled in the university, and in 1869,
before even receiving a degree, he was offered a professorship of philology at the University of Basel in
Switzerland. He remained there for ten years. His health was poor and consistently failing. He retired in
1879 and was considered “insane” by 1888. Some think that his philosophy drove him to his madness.
Nietzsche used the term “nihilism” in a variety of ways, but essentially he asserted nihilism as
understanding that the universe does not carry the same objective value as humanity would desire.
Let’s go back to the parable of being born in the room. You ascribed meaning to the items in the room
because they were perceived to be gifts. Yet upon concluding there was nothing outside the room to
ascribe purpose to it, you realized that the items were just items. There was nothing more that could
be attached to them, regardless of how much you wanted it.
Nihilism after Nietzsche suggests that the universe does not value humans or the same things
humanity does. It just exists. There is no value given to anything. Thus, there is no real purpose to life,
and humanity is destined to die worthlessly. Yet this poses an important question for nihilism: is it
possible to be a full nihilist? If everything is meaningless, there is no purpose, and there is no objective
reason for anything, why live? The true nihilist would never seek a promotion at work—or would never
seek to work at all. The moment a person admits there is a reason for work, even if it is only for money
to buy food, purpose has been ascribed. James Sire explains that there is such a thing as a true nihilist,
but these only exist in extreme cases, because they negate existence and deny reality. Perhaps this is
why Nietzsche’s life ended as it did, as he began to truly believe the conclusions of his philosophy.
Christianity was often the subject of Nietzsche’s writings and lectures. Not surprisingly, Nietzsche
believed Christianity to be abjectly and completely false, contrary to the true reality of the universe.
Christianity ascribes purpose, meaning, and value to many things by positing that the Christian God
exists. Christianity also claims to possess the “true” truth. Christianity believes that the words found
within the Bible are true and anything that contradicts them is false. Nietzsche found this horrific. The
philosophy that he mostly developed was totally opposed to Christianity. Nihilism suggests that
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everything is meaningless and that there is no real truth, if that is true, then Christianity must be
false. One of the most famous works of Nietzsche is his parable “The Madman.” Consider this excerpt
in light of his thoughts toward Christianity:
The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I
will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How
could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we
doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving?
Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is
there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the
breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not
need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who
are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God
is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” . . .
It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and
there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have
replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of
God?”[39]
This parable captures much of Nietzsche’s belief regarding nihilism and Christianity. In the first
paragraph of the excerpt, Nietzsche makes two bold statements. The first is that humankind has been
given the power to “drink up the sea” and to “wipe away the entire horizon.” Mocking God’s challenge
to Job in Job 38–41, Nietzsche suggests that the tables have now turned. God is no longer the
explanation for the unexplainable, but rather humanity has the keys of knowledge that only God had in
ancient days.
Yet what is the result of this? The second key point Nietzsche makes is the cold nature of nihilism.
Though Nietzsche was a nihilist through and through, he recognized the result this philosophy would
have on humanity. In nihilism, humanity is “straying through an infinite nothing.” Nihilism is the
“breath of empty space” and the coldness being felt. It is the night that is closing in. Nihilism is nothing,
and God is something. They are totally opposed to one another. Nietzsche and nihilists since continue
to suggest that there is nothing outside the natural world, and thus nihilism must be true.
Nihilism and Christianity
One thing to note in regard to nihilism and the Bible is the book of Ecclesiastes. Often, this book of the
Bible is considered to be nihilist in nature. This is not surprising, though, when considering that it begins,
“‘Absolute futility,’ says the Teacher / ‘Absolute futility. Everything is futile’” (1:2). Yet this must not be
taken out of context. In essence, this is nihilism, if nihilism is understood to assert nothingness in the
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absence of God. However, the Bible is not teaching this as the right philosophy; it is teaching this as a
warning to those who live their lives without God. Solomon is sharing from experience that life without
God is absolute futility and that no person should experience this. The conclusion to Ecclesiastes is also
a fitting conclusion to this chapter:
The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately. The sayings of the
wise are like goads, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings
are given by one Shepherd.
But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study
wearies the body. When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His
commands, because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every
hidden thing, whether good or evil. (Eccl 12:10–14)
