Ever since I first read Kierkegaard for the Existentialism class I took I have enjoyed his interpretation of the shortcomings of the way most people practice religion. His main argument deals with the teleological suspension of the ethical. He discusses this using the Abraham story from the bible asking if it is possible for Abraham’s intended actions, sacrificing Isaac, to be good despite being unethical. Kierkegaard basically argues that this story should be absolutely terrifying to people but instead is just accepted by religious believers. There is no evidence that Abraham isn’t just some crazy individual who is listening to his imaginary friends and planning to kill his son. Kierkegaard’s idea of Faith is very difficult compared to most interpretations. Faith is in every aspect irrational and absurd and requires one to be willing to ignore all the social norms and laws that have been agreed upon out of the hopes that some unknowable truth will come to pass. With that in mind how do we separate the people who actually hear god from those who are just insane and hearing voices? It’s impossible because we can never know, that’s what faith is it requires one to believe completely against all reason. It’s interesting however that in most cases people who claim to have faith in god do not see this as absurd, this is where Kierkegaard is a critique of most people, this is because they don’t have the faith of Abraham they have not thought or experienced what it would be like to completely suspend ones devotion to the ethical sphere and establish a direct connection to the divine. In other words they’ve never considered if they would be willing to sacrifice a member of their family to some unknown entity who interacts with them through remote means.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Faith
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I don't think Abraham saw god as "some unknown entity." I think that as far as the story goes, Abraham had experienced a very deep, personal connection to god for a long time. This is of course the same god who promised Abraham a son in the first place because of Abraham's faithfulness. In regards to sacrificing Isaac, it seems to me as though Abraham was obeying out of a combination of fear and love. It is this combination that causes him to skip over the ethical and in order to draw closer to god. Don't we see similar things occur with humans trying to get closer to other humans? At some point, your significant other might ask you to do something for them that is completely unethical, but you do it anyway because you love them and you fear they will leave you if you don't. You do what they ask so you can be closer to them. I think people are more willing to put aside the ethical for their individual goals than you give them credit for. In this way they have faith that the individual goals matter more than the ethical.
ReplyDeleteDKC, I think you identified an important aspect of Kierkegaard's question of faith. He talks about the Abraham Isaac story to convey the absurdity that comes from leaving out the ethical realm. In a modern day tale, the facts of this story would leave us speechless, and we would view Abraham as a lunatic, whether he really did have a direct connection with God or not. I think it is hard to say whether people have the same faith as Abraham or whether the context of our events have changed so drastically since his times that that perception of God would not be believed in our time.
ReplyDeleteThis recalls my personal difficulty with interpreting modern religious fundamentalism. Often times, practitioners of religious fundamentalism claim to be acting in accord with a god, sometimes through direct contact with such a deity. If I genuinely had contact with a god whose will I believed to be the greatest good, I cannot imagine acting in contradiction to such a god's will, even should it supersede what humanity by consensus recognizes as good. However, I cannot imagine having such contact. It troubles me that people violate human rights in the name of religion. Perhaps even more troubling is that I feel they would be justified should their connection with a god real. I only hope they should not find such divine inspiration.
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