In the conflict between Western capitalism and radical Islam, a paucity of belief squares up to an excess of it.
The question ‘What is the meaning of life? might have seemed to an ancient Hebrew as curious as the question ‘Do you believe in God?’ For most people today, including a lot of religious believers, the latter question is unconsciously modelled on questions like ‘Do you believe in Father Christmas?’,…
‘ontological anxiety’: namely, the feeling (sometimes accompanied by a particularly intense hangover) that one is a pointless, superfluous being
Heidegger argues in his work Being and Time that humans are distinguished from other beings by their capacity to put their own existence into question. They are the creatures for whom existence as such, not just particular features of it, is problematic. This or that situation might prove problem…
Only by keeping your head down as you pick a precarious way through the minefield of human existence can you hope to survive, paying homage to cruelly capricious gods who often enough scarcely deserve human respect, let alone religious veneration. The very human powers which might allow you to find…
