Nihilism and its Cultural Implications Part VI

By Sean Harrison Higgins

With the many different varieties of nihilism throughout the world, what can be done? What is the cause of these doctrines of madness? Is there a cure for those infected? This article will attempt to address these questions, providing both answers and solutions.

Nihilism seems to emerge from every culture and every civilization. The circumstances befalling each afflicted nihilistic belief system have several things in common. Take the spread of Pauline Christianity. Pauline Christianity began as a political tool of Constantine that backfired. An opportunist, Constantine used the visage and appearance of Christianity to win several battles.

Although, never officially converting until his death, this usage of the religion created the need for its actual practice throughout the empire. According to Nietzsche and Edward Gibbon, the latter the author of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity was a part of the cause of the fall of this civilization entirely. Our next example will be modern day atheism. Stemming from reactions to Evangelicalism and violence in the name of religion both having infected the modern first world, modern day secular atheism signals a decline.

Like the Pauline Christianity example, secular atheism seems to have sprouted in its current scale as a reaction to social decline and instability. This is very similar to the political instability that necessitated the usage of Christianity for political ends. Another example is Buddhism, stemming from Hindu political problems and the caste system, the Buddha created a belief system of withdrawal from society. While, surely he himself, the Buddha, was not a nihilist, the interpretations of the religion became too passive, and thus, nihilistic. This matter of misinterpretation is what binds all nihilistic belief-systems together.

The fact that the Buddha`s sermons were not collectively compiled until 500 years after his death is evidence for this claim. Much like Constantine`s council of Nicaea which compiled the bible nearly 400 years after the death of Christ, Buddhism was put in a similar position.  What we see with these two great religions, is a devolution, a denaturalization of the religious founders` original intent. It`s no wonder with the religions being created so much later than the founders themselves.

Nihilism and its Cultural Implications Part V

Nihilism and its Cultural Implications Part IV

Nihilism and its Cultural Implications Part III

Nihilism and its Cultural Implications Part II

Nihilism and its Cultural Implications part I