Down through the centuries Christian and Jewish philosophers believed that absolute truth was given by revelation from God in the form of the Ten Commandments and other biblical principles. (Absolute truth is a firm, objective, reliable, unchanging standard of right and wrong that applies to all people at all times.)

A major shift occurred during the philosophical period of the mid 1700s called the Enlightenment  which was also known as the age of reason. Enlightenment or modernist philosophy asserts that man must use reason, not revelation, to discover absolute truth.

In the 1800s philosophy deviated still further and entered what is called the Romantic period of philosophy. The romantics returned to nature (think Emerson, Thoreau, Walden Pond, etc.) and emphasized personal experience and subjective rather than objective thought. It was in this romantic period that existentialism was born. In this period philosophy began the shift from modern to postmodern.

Postmodernism can be called "post-reason" or "post-rational." Postmodernists regard truth as not given by revelation or even discovered by reason but truth is created by the human will of each person and is unique to that person. This is subjectivism. Each person has their own truth. There is no objective truth that applies to all people at all times. This is the moral isolation of the individual and is the essence of existentialism. But I'm getting ahead of myself -- let me first explain the rather innocent beginnings of existentialism.

The man who coined the term "existentialist" was Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). His philosophy was so earth shaking that prominent author Noah Hutchings considers him to be one of seven men who rule the world from the grave (along with Darwin, Marx and four others). Ironically, Kierkegaard was a religious man who tried to reconcile his explosive philosophical meanderings with Christianity. He reached a crisis point when he broke off his engagement to be married. It was this anguished choice that set him on a path to develop a philosophy of choice.

The Enlightenment philosophers emphasized human reason but this new existentialist philosophy would emphasize the human will. Man must throw off social constraints and in passionate emotion choose his own personal destiny. The existentialist must be totally responsible for his destiny and be utterly free. The above sounds radical but in early kierkegaardian innocence it might mean choosing to be a shoemaker rather than run the family farm as your parents expect. It remained for later generations of philosophers to take existentialism to its logical and destructive extremes.

The existentialists who followed Kierkegaard, especially the atheist existentialists, taught existentialism as a means of throwing off social convention and self-justifying many harmful and destructive behaviors. This gave rise to Bohemianism. The Bohemians were early beatniks or hippies. The French called them Bohemians because they thought they originated in Bohemia in central Europe. They didn't come from Bohemia but the name stuck.

The essence of bohemianism is a wandering, nomadic lifestyle and slovenly, nonconforming clothes and hairstyle. Each person creates his own truth by his own will. It's "different strokes for different folks." Each person must "do his own thing" even if that means getting a girl pregnant and abandoning her. There is no objective standard to judge other's behavior. Just let it slide. Does anyone see 1960s America in that? The 1960s is when existentialism reached the masses after its long journey form elite European academia.

A famous atheist existentialist of the generation following Kierkegaard was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who wrote that the most fundamental urge that motivates humans is power. Humans desire power to choose for themselves and they desire power over others to dominate and make choices for others and to order society after their own will. This is "I do my own thing and you must do my thing too!" He called this "The will to power."

Adolf Hitler was greatly influenced by Nietzsche as was the entire Nazi movement. The most dramatic Nazi propaganda film was The Triumph of the Will. This film aggrandized Hitler and the sixth Nazi Party congress in Nuremberg in 1934.

After World War II there arose a cult of nihilism around the writings of the famous French existentialists Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1959). Nihilism is the idea that the world is absurd and there is no real meaning to life. Existentialism and its offspring, moral relativism (subjectivity is truth), are the dominant philosophies of our time. The universities, liberal politics, literature and film are rife with existentialist and subjectivist notions.

I hope this article has helped you understand the mind of the existentialist so we can gently point them to God as truthgiver. Multitudes, by God's grace, are turning away from existentialist narcissism (excessive self love) and are finding true meaning in the objective eternal reality of Christ.   

The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.  

Steps to salvation: Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

1. Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
2. Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
3. Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
4. Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
5. Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)

"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)

To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:

"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."

If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!

Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA

(C) 2010 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given

DEFENDING THE FAITH APOLOGETIC ARTICLES Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world. The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel. All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given. To receive these articles which are sent out once per month fill in your email address below and click the SUBMIT button. *Security: Write the characters in the image above (Case sensitive)