Spiritual Speculation Space
Navigating Nihilism
April 4, 2024
Discussion Questions
These questions are just to help get the discussion going. They do not need to be discussed in order and conversation outside of the bounds of these questions is welcome.
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Without reference to established definitions, how do you personally define words like nihilism, the void, atheism, pessimism, or scepticism when you hear them in conversation?
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Is anyone you know a nihilist, either by your own, or by technically correct definitions?
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Are you aware of the ideas in Friedrich Nietzsche's writing mostly via general pop-cultural reference, isolated quotes, or the fuller writings themselves?
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In your experience is nihilism driven more by emotion, intellect, or experience?
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What would society look like if everyone was a nihilist?
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Is it possible for nihilists to find some form of meaning or purpose?
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Does the book of Ecclesiastes advocate nihilism? How do you make sense of this book?
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Can nihilism be a healthy, transitory state? Have you ever gone through a process of deconstructing your values, beliefs, relationships, experiences and other foundational aspects of your identity and worldview?
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Can transitory nihilism be seen to track, in a lose way, with the experience of Good Friday for the followers of Christ? (Ex. See Peter’s denial of what he had formerly held most dear beginning in John 13:36).
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What have you constructed after periods of deconstruction? Have you lingered in a deconstructed and/or nihilistic state before reconstruction?
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The song "Into the Void" (video below), explores nihilism during an extremely bleak time in the author's life, repeating the lyric "Tried to save myself but my self keeps slipping away." Jesus states, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Are they talking about aspects of the same experience? Is Jesus's statement, quoted in context below, able to subsume nihilism, and the ideas in Ecclesiastes?