Nihilism represents the fundamental philosophical and spiritual current of the modern age, broadly defined as the belief that there is no absolute truth, and that all truth is relative.
This doctrine has sadly become exceptionally widespread and pervasive, deeply permeating the hearts and minds like a cancer, so much so that it lacks any clear external 'front' against which it might be directly combated.
Its essence is most clearly articulated by Friedrich Nietzsche and Dostoevsky: "God is dead, therefore man becomes God and everything is possible". A position that demands that modern humans must confront the nihilism within us, as it exists in all individuals.
Unless combated with divine aid, this nihilism risks engulfing individuals in an abyss of nothingness, beyond hope of redemption, without adherence to Christ.
Nihilism is the root of the modern age's revolution, characterising humanity's persistent conflict against God. This struggle involves man's attempt to dismantle the existing order, establishing a new one devoid of Christ, and to deny the Kingdom of God in favour of an earthly utopia.
Individuals once ensnared in this conflict against God, having rejected traditional Christianity, often delved into counterculture, Eastern philosophies positing an impersonal God, or experimented with insanity.
Such quests for truth or reality, when pursued through these means, frequently resulted in profound despair. Existential atheism, characterised by a burning hatred of a seemingly unjust God, is recognised as a spiritual state, a genuine grapple with God, which can lead to a vision of Christ.
Even Nietzsche, in styling himself Antichrist, implicitly demonstrated an intense yearning for Christ. The pathway out of such despair is often a realization that truth is not merely an abstract idea known by the mind, but something personal, even a person, sought and loved by the heart.
The Question of Truth
The doctrine of nihilism is inherently a question of truth, specifically absolute truth. Nietzsche's definition of nihilism is "that there is no truth, that there is no absolute state of affairs, no thing in itself".
For a generation accustomed to skepticism, the concept of absolute truth can seems antiquated, as the common idea holds that all truth is relative. The expression "all truth is relative" is a popular interpretation of Nietzsche's core tenet, forming the foundation of nihilism for both masses and elites.
Relative truth, in the modern era, is exemplified by scientific knowledge (Scientism), which proceeds from observation, employs logic, and advances systematically from the known to the unknown.
It is inherently discursive, contingent, and qualified, always expressed in relation to something else, never standing alone as categorical or absolute.
However, the statements "all truth is empirical" and "all truth is relative" are self-contradictory, as the former is metaphysical, not empirical, and the latter is an absolute statement. This contradiction leads to the logical conclusion that if any truth exists, it cannot be merely relative.
The fundamental principles of modern science, like any system of knowledge, are themselves unchangeable and absolute; without them, knowledge would not exist. This axiom implies that the absolute cannot be attained through relative means, meaning the first principles of knowledge must be presupposed, not scientifically demonstrated, and are thus objects of faith.
The widespread "pragmatic position" that these principles are mere verifiable hypotheses is unsatisfactory, as it fails to establish their foundation in truth. Every individual lives by faith and is, whether consciously or not, a metaphysician; the very claim to knowledge implies a theory of knowledge and a notion of ultimate knowability and truth.
This ultimate truth, whether conceived as God or as the ultimate coherence of things, serves as a metaphysical first principle, an absolute truth, the acknowledgement of which causes the theory of the "relativity of truth" to collapse, revealing it as a self-contradictory absolute. The proclamation of the "relativity of truth" is, therefore, a "negative metaphysics".
Forms of Negative Metaphysics
##### - Naive Realism (or Naturalism):
This philosophy does not precisely deny absolute truth but asserts its own absolute claims. Rejecting ideal or spiritual absolutes, it posits the absolute truth of Materialism and determinism.
Though still present in some circles, such as official Marxist doctrine, it is largely considered a quaint relic. It constitutes an impossible "scientific metaphysic" as science pertains to particulars while metaphysics concerns what underlies them.
This philosophy is suicidal, as its materialism and determinism invalidate all philosophy by claiming everything, including philosophy, is determined rather than true. Its adherents often remain unaware of this fundamental contradiction, which can also be observed in the altruistic and idealistic practices of historical figures like the Russian nihilists, whose actions often flagrantly contradicted their materialistic and egoistic theories.
##### - Critical Realism (or Positivism):
This form directly denies metaphysical truth, restricting itself to "empirical," "relative" truth. This position is inherently contradictory, as the denial of absolute truth is itself an absolute statement.
##### - Naive (or Doctrinaire) Agnosticism:
This posits the absolute unknowability of any absolute truth. Though appearing modest, this claim itself is absolute. This form is a variant of positivism, attempting to mask its contradictions.
##### - Critical (or Pure) Agnosticism:
This involves a consistent renunciation of the absolute, leading eventually to total Solipsism. It asserts "we do not know whether there exists an absolute truth," and thus advises contentment with empirical, relative truth.
However, if no absolute standard exists, truth and knowledge cannot even be defined. Such a stance is intellectually irresponsible, effectively a surrender of truth to power. The search for truth outside revelation ultimately leads to a dead end, demonstrating that if there is no revealed truth, there is no truth at all.
Logic, therefore, leads to solipsism and irrationalism if absolute truth is denied or doubted. The only position free of logical contradiction is the affirmation of an absolute truth that underpins all lesser truths. This absolute truth cannot be attained by relative human means; its affirmation relies solely on revelation.
The rationalist often recoils from divine revelation, particularly Christian revelation. However, those who do not accept a coherent doctrine of truth, such as that offered by Christian revelation, are compelled to seek it elsewhere, a path that has led modern philosophy into obscurity and confusion due to its initial assumption of revelation's non-existence.
No individual truly lives without the light of some revelation, be it true or false; those who reject Christian revelation inevitably live by a false one, which always leads to an abyss.
The inherent human thirst for truth, implanted by God to lead humanity to Him, can only be satisfied by accepting His revelation. Nihilism, therefore, functions as another opposing faith, a false absolute truth.
It unites various seemingly divergent groups, humanists, skeptics, revolutionaries, artists, and philosophers - all in one common objective: the annihilation of divine revelation and the preparation of a new order in which man shall be the sole God.
The Stages of the Nihilist Dialectic
Nihilism manifests through a dialectical process, moving mankind progressively towards an abyss. These stages are not strictly chronological but overlap and coexist, representing a historical and psychological progression.
##### 1. Liberalism:
This initial stage functioned to obscure higher truths concerning God and spiritual life through an atmosphere of tolerance and agnosticism. Historically, it is a direct derivative of Renaissance humanism.
##### 2. Realism (Atheism):
Encompassing naturalism and positivism, realism is the doctrine that reduces all traditionally higher things—of the mind and spirit—to lower or basic material, sensation, or the purely physical.
It posits an open Atheism, explicit Materialism, and self-interest, replacing liberal vagueness with what it perceives as clarity. This worldview, however, remains childishly naive regarding ultimate beginnings and ends.
It represents the presumption of the fragment to replace the whole, the attempt to build knowledge from below without bowing to truth received from above.
Realism transforms indifference to absolute truth into hostility and mere attachment to the world into fanatical devotion. While initially inspired by a love of truth, this love becomes a disease," ending in its own negation.
The realist, unlike the Christian who seeks God in everything, simplifies and reduces everything to race, sex, or "mode of operation". This stage intensifies the attack on Christian Truth.
The everyday nihilism rooted in the lives and thoughts of people is the source from which the catastrophic events of the century have sprung.
Realism is evidenced in widespread faith in science, progress, and enlightenment, coupled with a practical materialism that dismisses theology and metaphysics. - see Scientism
The simplification inherent in realism, as seen in the ideas of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Darwinism, underpins much of contemporary thought and life. The closing off of heaven by realism unleashes forces from below, turning the "new earth" dream into a nightmare and transforming the "new man" into a "sub-humanity".
##### 3. Vitalism (New-Age):
This stage represents a reaction against the rationalist, technological utopia of realism, protesting in the name of "life" and the concrete needs of human nature.
Despite yearning for the spiritual, vitalism is fundamentally naturalistic and parodies any approach to another world, having accepted realism's critique of absolute truth. It often assumes a pseudo-religious character, leading to subjective fantasies, actual Satanism, or a rootless eclecticism that misinterprets fragments from various traditions.
The disease of nihilism here extends quantitatively, affecting the common people for the first time. The "death of God" precipitates a widespread, restless search for substitutes for divine truth.
This manifests in phenomena such as absurd crime, which lacks clear motives or remorse, and in a general popular unrest characterised by a passion for movement and speed, escape through media, primitive music, the cult of youth, sexual promiscuity, and disrespect for authority.
Such activity functions as an escape from boredom, meaninglessness, and spiritual emptiness. Politically, vitalism has appeared in cults of activism and violence.
In art, it is a reaction against academic realism, drawing inspiration from exotic, savage, or primitive sources, with continuous "experimentation" and a focus on subjective feeling rather than truth.
Religiously, it spawns sects focused on vague imminent forces, occultism, spiritism, "new thought," and indiscriminate quests for "enlightenment" or "religious experience" through various means.
All vitalist religious manifestations share a hostility to any stable doctrine or institution and a paramount concern with the immediate values of life, vitality, experience, awareness, or ecstasy.
Vitalism signifies the elimination of truth as the criterion for human action, replacing it with "life-giving" or "vital" standards, thus marking the final divorce of life from truth.
It carries realist intentions further, reducing everything to subjective experience and sensation. The quest for "original," "experimental," or "exciting" qualities supplants concerns about truth in many fields.
While psychologically understandable, vitalism ultimately offers only tantalization, never satisfying the deep hunger for substantial truth. It is a symptom of world-weariness, indicating the end of Christian Europe and the last phase of a dying civilisation.
##### 4. Nihilism of Destruction:
This stage represents an almost pure form of nihilism, a rage against creation and civilization that seeks to reduce them to absolute nothingness.
Unlike previous destructive impulses, this is unique to the modern age, involving a doctrine and plan for universal destruction. While earlier nihilist forms, like realism and vitalism, hinted at destruction as a means to a "new order," for the pure nihilist, destruction becomes an end in itself.
Nietzsche's phrase, "there is no truth, all is permitted," proclaims the basic principle and apology for this destructive nihilism. Max Stirner declared war on all standards, and Sergey Nechayev translated this into unprincipled ruthless practice.
Mikhail Bakunin invoked "universal destruction," stating that "the passion for Destruction is also a creative passion". This spirit animated nihilist assassins and Lenin's ruthless assumption of power.
Hitler on WW1 further revealed the explicit nature of this revolution of nihilism, which aimed for world conquest or total ruin. Destruction is an indispensable part of the nihilist program and the most unequivocal expression of the worship of nothingness at the heart of nihilist "theology".
The progress of nihilism is likened to a disease of the spiritual eye, beginning with misperception (liberalism), narrowing of vision (realism), inflammation and hallucinations (vitalism), and culminating in blindness, agony, convulsions, and death (destruction).
The Theology of Nihilism
The revolution driven by nihilism possesses an inverted theology and a Satanic spirituality. Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead" signifies that God has ceased to exist in the hearts of modern humanity, representing a loss of faith and the apostasy to worldliness.
This "death of God" is not a passive event but an active willing of God's non-existence, achieved by preferring something else to the true God.
True Atheism is considered impossible for the whole person, as denying the true God merely leads to devotion to a false one.
Proudhon, calling himself an "anti-theist," asserted that the revolution "does not deny the absolute, it eliminates it," and that man's duty is to "continually hunt the idea of God out of his mind and conscience".
Bakunin believed that "if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him". The Bolshevism "Atheism" of the 20th century explicitly engaged in a war against God. The war against God can even adopt the name of God or Christ, as seen in Robespierre's cult of the "Supreme Being" or Adolf Hitler's "supreme force".
Nihilism is animated by a faith as potent and spiritual as the Christian faith it seeks to destroy.
This nihilist faith is the opposite of Christian faith: it is marked by doubt, suspicion, disgust, envy, jealousy, pride, impatience, rebelliousness, and blasphemy.
It is an attitude of dissatisfaction that rejects the status quo, embodying Bakunin's "sentiment of rebellion" and Satanic Pride against all masters. The nihilist rejection of Christian faith stems less from a loss of belief than from a rebellion against the authority and obedience it commands.
Revolutionary literature consistently advocates overthrowing God the Father and His institutions, driven by "righteous indignation" against perceived injustices rather than truth. This inverse faith prioritises the destruction of rival faith over philosophical refutation. Nihilism fails as long as genuine Christian faith persists in even one individual, for that person serves as a living testament to truth.
Nihilist rebellion, for many, manifests as a direct war against authority itself, not merely against corruptions or injustices within the old order. In politics, it seeks a fundamentally new conception of government; in religion, a complete refashioning of religious ideas; in art and literature, a new approach to "creation" and a new definition of "art".
The contemporary disorder in these realms results from the deliberate annihilation of their foundational authorities, leading to unprincipled politics, morality, and indiscriminate "religious experience".
Camus, for instance, considered rebellion the only self-evident truth left to modern individuals. This suggests that nihilism has reduced individuals to accepting the fight against God as their "natural state". One who has abandoned truth and all authority founded upon it is left with only blind will, which, as Dostoevsky noted, "is closest to nothing".
The Worship of Nothingness
The concept of "nothingness" as understood by modern nihilism is unique to the Christian tradition, contrasting with Eastern notions of "non-being".
Christianity's doctrine of _creatio ex nihilo_ (creation from nothing) underscores God's omnipotence and the inherent marvel of creation. Nihilism's existence is predicated on denying this truth, finding the world absurd not through research but through an unwillingness to believe its Christian meaning.
An insurrection against God within Christendom has brought forth unprecedented evils because its guilt is proportional to the spiritual light surrounding it.
The anxiety and "abyss" experienced by many modern individuals are precisely the nothingness from which God created them, and into which they seem to fall when they deny God and their own creation.
For the explicit anti-theist, this sense of falling transforms into a frenzied Satanic energy driving them to destroy creation. Yet, such nihilists ultimately fail, unwittingly testifying to the truth they seek to destroy; their attempts to annul God's act of creation are but an inverted parody of it.
The God of the nihilist is Nothingness itself. At this spiritual historical juncture, a "dead god"—a great void—occupies the centre of human faith, with the nihilist willing the world to revolve around nothing. This is self-contradictory and suicidal, yet it defines the current state of modern thought.
While signs indicate a move out of the age of nihilism towards a new age, this transition represents not an overcoming but a perfection of nihilism. The revolution cannot conclude until the last trace of faith in the true God is eradicated, forcing everyone to live in this void.
Coherence, once derived from faith and God as the world's orientation, is replaced by the absurd, a world where there is neither up nor down, right nor wrong, true nor false.
This world of discontinuity and disjointedness is the work of Satan. Many nihilists openly glory in this fact, proclaiming allegiance to Satan and Antichrist. This naive bravado reveals a deeper truth: nihilist revolution stands against authority, order, truth, and God, aligning itself with Satan.
The Nihilist Programme
Nihilism employs a seemingly positive programme to achieve its satanic objectives.
##### 1. The Destruction of the Old Order:
This is the initial and most evident aim. The old order, nourished by Christian truth, had its laws, institutions, and customs founded in that truth.
Effective war against God necessitates the destruction of every element of this old order, making violence an essential, not incidental, aspect of the nihilist revolution. The dogma of Marxism asserts that "force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one".
Revolutionary literature abounds with calls for violence and ecstasy at its prospect, viewing it as the means to hasten the new order.
Bolshevism and National Socialism are seen as principal partners in this destructive task. Goebbels explained that the destruction of Europe's past by bombs served to dismantle "the last obstacles to the fulfillment of our revolutionary task," clearing the way for the "new".
##### 2. The Making of the "New Earth":
Following destruction, a transitional stage known in Marxist doctrine as the "dictatorship of the proletariat" emerges.
Here, violence also serves a "constructive function". The ideal of both Soviet and Western realists is an identical "new order," built entirely by humanity "liberated from the yoke of God" upon the ruins of the divine old order.
This involves the feverish pursuit of "progress" to fashion a cold, inhuman world devoid of love or reverence, where every aspect is organised and exploited for man's sake and against the true God.
This programme includes total planning, birth control, genetic and mind control, and the welfare state. This "nihilist organisation"—the transformation of earth and society by machines, modern architecture, and "human engineering"—is a consequence of the unqualified acceptance of industrialism and technology.
It translates philosophical pragmatism and skepticism into a system where, in the absence of truth, power knows no limit. The ultimate goal is the absolute despotism of worldliness, an artificial world so encompassing that it becomes impossible for individuals to envision anything beyond it. This world, from the nihilist perspective, will be "perfect realism" and "total liberation," but in reality, it will be the vastest and most efficient prison men have ever known.
##### 3. The Fashioning of the New Man:
This is considered the most significant and ominous item in the nihilist historical programme. It is the "transformation of man" into a "higher" humanity, forged through "creative violence".
Marx and Engels stated that "the alteration of men on a mass scale is necessary," an alteration occurring through revolution. Violence is essential for this mass change, transforming revolutionaries through the indulgence of anger, hatred, resentment, and the will to dominate.
The 20th-century world wars also significantly contributed to producing this new uprooted humanity. Nihilist vitalism has disintegrated and mobilised the individual, replacing stability with a senseless quest for power and movement, and normal feeling with nervous excitability.
Nihilist realism, conversely, has led to standardisation, specialisation, simplification, mechanisation, and dehumanisation, reducing the individual to a primitive level and making him a slave of his environment.
This constitutes a "true mutation," a "qualitative change in human nature". The new man is a rootless, discontinuous figure, a "free thinker" open to intellectual fashions due to lacking his own foundation, a "seeker after some 'new revelation'," a worshipper of "fact" who abandons truth, an autonomous rebel, and ultimately a "mass man," capable only of elementary ideas yet scornful of higher things.
Beyond Nihilism
While a negative image of the "new man" is prevalent, a parallel current of optimism also exists, producing "new men" who are idealistic, practical, and enthusiastic about scientific progress, world unity, peace, and brotherhood.
However, their faith and hope are entirely worldly, directed solely towards fleeting goods. This "positive new man" is merely another manifestation of the nihilist programme's success, a counterpart to the subhuman negative image. Both images confirm the death of man as traditionally known—man as a pilgrim seeking heaven—and herald the birth of a "new man" solely of the earth.
This "new age," often called post-Christian, is simultaneously the age "beyond nihilism". This phrase indicates that nihilism, being negative and destructive in essence, reaches the end of its programme upon obliterating Christian influence.
It then recedes, making way for a more 'constructive' movement to complete the revolution. The hope that this "new age" signifies an overcoming of nihilism is naive; it is rather its obsolescence, not its defeat.
The "God of nihilism"—nothingness—is a vacuum awaiting a new god to fill it. A common apology suggests nihilism is a necessary precursor, a destruction before reconstruction, a darkness before dawn.
However, this represents a fundamental misconception of the modern revolution. Violence and negation are merely preliminary work, part of a larger plan promising something worse than the nihilist era. The apparent "thaw" or shift towards a "benevolent" phase is not a change in the revolution's will or direction, but a sign that it nears its ultimate goal.
The hope for a new age "beyond nihilism" is itself the final item in the revolution's programme. No major power today is non-revolutionary, and criticism of Marxism often proposes only better means to an equally revolutionary end.
This points to the age's anti-Christian spirit, where the ultimate goal of the revolution is a pseudo-Christianity.
Nietzsche envisioned a "transvaluation of all values" "beyond nihilism," a completely new conditions of existence that would supersede perfect nihilism.
Lenin echoed this, stating that the "factory discipline" of the proletariat was merely a "foothold" for a radical cleansing towards "completely new conditions of existence".
This ultimate goal comprises a three-fold corollary of nihilist thought:
##### 1. A "new age":
Conceived as absolutely new, fundamentally dividing human history into two distinct parts.
##### 2. The "transformation of man himself into a god":
The "death of God" gives rise to the idea of the "Superman" or "Man-God," with the logic that "if there is no God then I am God". The "new man" is passive material awaiting a definitive form.
##### 3. A "new order" of "anarchy":
In the Marxist myth, the nihilist state is to "wither away," leading to a unique world order, a "millennium".
This apocalyptic dream is a Satanic imitation and inversion of the kingdom of God". Figures of genius who embrace this vision, like Marx, Proudhon, and Nietzsche, possess a nobility of Lucifer, refusing to serve God and instead waging war against Him with His own gifts.
Their "victory" in transforming the world suggests imminent success, yet what kind of peace can be found in a humanity schooled in violence?. In contrast to the Christian life's harmony of means and ends (patience, humility, love), the works of Satan are consistent in their "virtues" of hatred, pride, discord, and violence, which will intensify in the revolutionary kingdom. The "new-age" is not an overcoming of nihilism but its culmination.
Nihilism is fundamentally a spiritual disorder, curable only by spiritual means. The Christian, in an ultimate sense, is a "nihilist" towards the world (holding the world as nothing, God as all), which is the precise opposite of the nihilism that posits God as nothing and the world as all.
Christian "nothingness and poverty" are actually fullness and joy. One who cannot believe in Christ will inevitably believe in Antichrist. The ultimate spiritual end of nihilism is Hell, where its deepest wish—the annihilation of God, creation, and self—is proven futile.
As Dostoevsky noted through Father Zosima, some in hell remain proud, tortured by their own choice, cursing God and life, eternally burning in the fire of their own wrath, yearning for death but never attaining it.
The invincible truth of Christianity is that annihilation does not exist; all nihilism is in vain.
God cannot be conquered or escaped; His kingdom endures eternally. Though nihilism has largely abolished the fear of hell from modern minds, contemporary individuals paradoxically understand it more than heaven, often perceiving their earthly state as an image of hell.
Yet, the full extent of hell cannot be experienced in this life, for the satanic spirit is always disguised. The Christian's belief in hell is rooted in faith and experience, understanding that only one with a notion of true life can comprehend the meaning of its absence.
God's love, even for those in hell, can be torment to those unprepared to receive it. Nothing less than hell is deemed worthy of humanity if it proves unworthy of heaven.