Did We Kill God?
A Question of Philosophy in America
posted over 12 years ago
As a disclaimer, let me first clarify that this is not for a theological debate on the existence of God. Rather this is a proposition regarding the philosophical implications behind the phrase "God is dead."
It was Friedrich Nietzche who said, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him."
Has America taken the idea of God and thrust it upon the individual?
In religion, God is the standard for right and wrong. In America, the standard seems to be subjective. Subjectivism is the ethical view which holds that the answer to what is right and wrong is held by each individual's personal beliefs. As Americans fight for more individual liberties, claiming them as rights, the moral standards which have held for centuries are increasingly slipping more so than ever before.
Alexander Tocqueville argues in his book, Democracy in America, that Americans find their own reason as "the most obvious and proximate source of truth." He claims that Americans "have found no need of drawing philosophical method out of books; they have found it in themselves." If this is the case, then the standard of judgment in American citizens lies in the individual, a thinking which is dangerously close to leading us to moral relativism. Personal beliefs differ greatly, as do their desires. Consider, for example, that in the past few years there's been debate about pedophilia as a sexual orientation. Does this seem right to you? With no objective standard to uphold, what individual freedoms can we deny?
My question is this: has America taken the ideal of individual freedom too far?
(edited over 12 years ago)
This question hasn't been answered yet.
