Theological Term of the Week

nihilism
“[T]he view that there are no objective values,” particularly no objective moral values, and “no objective purpose or meaning in human life or the universe at large.” 1

• From What’s Your Worldview? by James N. Anderson:

[Nihilism] conflicts with our strongest moral intuitions. Most people recognize that some things are just plain wrong, no matter what. For example, torturing and murdering children for sadistic pleasure is objectively wrong. Even is everyone in the world enjoyed it and wanted to do it, it would still be wrong. Some moral values really are independent of human preferences.

Of course, the Nihilist might insist that our moral intuitions are completely unreliable and should be disregarded. But we would need to have very good reasons to dismiss such strong and widely held intuitions. Are there reasons to embrace Nihilism that are more obvious to us than our moral intuitions? And if our moral intuitions are so thoroughly misleading, why should we trust any of our other intuitions? Why should we trust our rational intuitions? Nihilism threatens to undermine our rationality just as much as it undermines our morality.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is nihilism?
2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Nihilism
3. J. Ligon Duncan: God Is Dead - Nihilism
4. J. Budziszewski: Escape fro Nihilism

Related terms:

• atheism
• finite godism
• materialism
• monism
• monotheism
• open theism
• panentheism
• pantheism
• relativism
• skepticism
• Unitarianism

Filed under Worldviews

1From What’s Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life’s Big Questions by James N. Anderson, page 75.

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