Name: Aaron Christian C.

Dagala
Sched: TTh 9:20-10:50

Chapter 7: Is There a Why?

The story was that a prisoner was thirsty and tried reaching for the icicle that was
hanging outside his window in his prison. But then a guard saw him and smashed the
icicle into the ground. This made the prisoner ask the prison guard “Why” which the
guard replied “Here there is no why.” The brutality of that response is saying that in that
extermination camp it is a place where it defied all explanation for their absolute evil. In
the face of their horror, explanations born of psychology, sociology, and economics
were pathetic in their inadequacy. Meaning in that place it is an absolute horror where
meanings and explanations were nothing but mere words, that place cannot be
reasoned out. Primo Levi was one of the three survivor of the extermination camp and
that experience in the camp changed his perspective in life. Later on the other two was
traumatized and committed suicide. Levi’s experience in the camp as he said left a mark
on his life but it only increased his desire to live and gave purpose to his life so that
such thing won’t ever happen again. His goal now was to serve as a witness to the truth
and a reminder of what happened. But many were saddened when news came that he
died down the stairwell, speculations were that he committed suicide. He possessed a
clear identity and a passionate purpose. But he seemed to lack an adequate sense of
faith and meaning, which might be the reason why he did such thing.

In this chapter there are three major families of faith the Eastern family, Western
secular family, and third is the biblical family of faith. Now these families have their own
set of beliefs and one differs from the other in terms of teachings and faith. Now the
author said that each faith can be asked the questions of life but what Guinness wanted
to ask was, their stand or perspective in the dilemma of evil, suffering and death.
Guinness wants to know their outline and how they differ in viewing it. These questions
is important for a seeker because firstly each faith or philosophy deserves to speak for
itself rather than being understood only through the words of outsiders or critics.
Secondly, each faith must be understood in its best form rather than its worst.
Chapter 8: Nirvana is not for Ergos

It began in the night when Siddharta Gautama was leaving his prestigious life
and with it his family. Gautama was leaving for the purpose of pursuing on becoming a
Buddha, it became a historic night where he renounced power and other worldly
pleasures and became homeless. The story of Siddharta Gautama’s journey from
privilege to disillusionment, to asceticism, and finally to enlightenment is a prototypical
of the detachment toward suffering in the Eastern family of faiths. Suffering is seen as a
basic in Hinduism and Buddhism. This chapter is all about Hinduism and Buddhism’s
point of view about suffering. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, suffering is seen as basic
to human life. They rather choose to pursue salvation through sacrifices and eventually
pursue the goal of Nirvana. It is about choosing the middle path, the way of Right View,
Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, and Right
Mindfulness. In Buddha’s four essentials, there’s dukkha (affliction), samudaya
(cravings), nirodha (containment), and marga (the right track). Buddhism itself is one
grand response to suffering. They believe that what extinguished is not only suffering
but attachment, desire, and finally the individual who desires. As long as one desires
there is suffering.

I respect Hinduism and Buddhism as a faith. In life there is really suffering and
unjust things happen to people, may they be good or bad. But I disagree that there is no
remedy for suffering in this world, true there is someone who is suffering but people can
help each other to extinguish that suffering. Suffering may be an endless cycle of curing
the suffering and then suffering again at a later time but I think that is what makes life
worth living. To experience pain one can expect happiness, to experience suffering one
can experience hope.
Chapter 9: I Do it my Way

This chapter is about Western Secularism or in other words humanism or

naturalism. Protagoras quoted “Man is the measure of all things” and Leon Battista said
“A man can do all things if he will.” Secularism has been around for a long time and
prominent people uses this faith in their own philosophy like what John F Kennedy
declared in his inaugural address “All man’s problem were created by man and can be
solved by man” this states that secularism separates God in its affairs. Humanism’s all
decisive claim is that, since there is no God, there is no revealed meaning. Therefore
meaning isn’t disclosed or even discovered. It’s created. Human beings are both the
source and the standard of their own meaning, so it’s up to each of us to create its own
meaning. Humanism acknowledges that suffering and evil are part and parcel of the
inhospitable universe in which humans find themselves. Evil is normal and natural in the
world as we know it. Also humanism believes that given the flaws and evil and suffering
in “creation as we find it” it is up to us to create our own meaning of life by working
resolutely for reform. The key motivation for secularism is the perceived need to
manage and potentially eliminate pain and suffering.

Personally I believe in the capabilities of man, we can do things if we will it. But of
course with the help of the people around us, what makes men strong is because of
their unity in a specific goal. Secularism is a good philosophy in life but for me it lacks
faith because it puts too much faith in man. Man is not absolute and has its own
weakness but in numbers they compensate for what is lacking. If secularism were my
philosophy I think I would be living a dull life since living has no meaning and what I do
is what put meaning in too. There is no quest or search for meaning and I think that is
not enough to what am I seeking in life.
Chapter 10: People of the Crossed Sticks

Chapter ten was about the biblical family of faiths this faith views pain, suffering,
and death as abnormal, an alien intrusion rather than something natural and the
ultimate problem lies in what we’ve done in our disobedience rather than our existence.
The view on its biblical vision is bifocal meaning that the world must always be
understood simultaneously from the perspective of creation and perspective of fall.
Having a bifocal point of view Lewis regarded the Christian faith has a record of being
world-affirming and world denying at the same time. World-affirming in that we believe
the world’s structures are fundamentally good, a part of God’s good creation now
longing to be restored. World-denying in that we believe the world’s systems are
pervasively evil, firmly opposed to God and His loving rule and awaiting His judgment.
Having this type of vision carries an implication for the biblical response to suffering. If
suffering is a result of the fall rather than creation (a consequence of what we have
done rather than of who we are relative to the world as it was created to be) then pain,
suffering and death are abnormal. When faced with evil people tend to feel the world
should have been otherwise. Human beings may be caught in tragic situations in life,
but the problem can be traced to human beings not life or to rephrase according to
Camus, the problem is not in creation but in creation as we find it. The second response
by biblical faith to suffering is that we can face and fight evil because God himself both
cares and comes to the aid of those who look to him. The biblical response is one of
engagement, not detachment.

In the biblical family of faith, where they believe in a God and creation where
everything that he created is good, I think it is a good faith that it views life in a positive
light. The thought of having a God close to you like a friend who can be one call away or
with you in even in your darkest days is an enticing offer for a seeker. But having an all-
powerful God one can question the existence of evil, why does it need to exist or is it
even necessary in life. It can also question existence itself for what may be the meaning
of life, is it to follow the God until the judgement day and while waiting we indulge
ourselves in His creation.
Chapter 11: Roadblocks and reality

This chapter featured Bob, a friendly, handsome, articulate, natural leader, a

born politician, and keenly interested in what was going in the world. His upbringing was
of the ideal person a parent would want, whom believed in moral rightness and
righteousness. But one day during a protest about rent control he gave a speech which
altered his thinking, he was appalled and felt a sickening realization after he gave his
speech. He manipulated a group of bright people into believing what he is fighting for
just by using clever adjectives and clever association of words. Then he wondered that
maybe there is no foundation to the beliefs of the values held by his friends, nothing in
itself is right or good or just, it is just manipulated to make others believe so.

The new Obscenity or in another words is the claim to truth, the author says that
it has been controversial for a long time, and asks the question “what is truth?” I agree
to what the author describes the truth is. It is one of our simplest and most precious
gifts. Without it we would not handle reality and negotiate life. Truth can be defined by
being in accord to fact or reality, but can we identify it? For me truth is something that is
found and can be shown but depends on the person whether to believe or not. One can
say that truth is relative for there is no absolute truth if it depends on perception.
Regardless truth is vital requirement for free societies that remain free. It matters
because in the end there is no humanness or freedom without it.

Any claims to truth really is relative, if one person claims that “this” is the truth
then it is his own truth, I do not see it as arrogant but rather a fresh set of thinking but it
also depends if the truth that a person believes is degrading or a complete mockery of
others. Truth connects reality, humanness, and freedom without truth these three would
collapse, a reality without truth is an illusion, humanness without truth is a life full of
doubt, and freedom without truth is not freedom at all.
Chapter 12: Biography as Philosophy

Van Gogh was religious and Nietzsche was an atheist. Van Gogh believed to the
end despite solid reasons not to believe, while Nietzsche never once investigated the
evidence for the Christian faith he attacked so vehemently and said explicitly that he
had no bad experiences of Christians or the church. This in return counts as a
contradiction of faith for seekers. What in return counts as a contradiction of faith? But
why did Nietzsche opposed faith so vehemently, this leads to the theory of projection,
the idea is that religious belief is a projection or a form of wishful fulfillment and
therefore an illusion. This view was backed by Freud and explained away by using
psychological and social factors says that religious belief is an illusion, fulfillment of the
strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind, also Marx, Nietzsche and Freud claimed
that it is a waste of time to investigate whether religious beliefs were true. But this
statement of Freud has many problems. One is that the projection theory is now
acknowledged to be his own personal worldview and not a part of psychoanalysis or
science which he admitted. Second there was no evidence of basing his theory on
empirical evidence and astonishingly little experience either in probing the psychology
of belief in God or in caring for patients who were religious. Also Freud’s research time
has overwhelmingly contradicted that religious belief is neurotic and destructive. Where
in fact religious life has demonstrated to go hand in hand with better physical health,
and greater psychological well-being and positive social influence. And more
astonishing, Freud’s theory has been shown to provide a better explanation for atheism
than for religious belief.
Discussion

The three family of Faiths has their own strong points and weaknesses and for
me the one that has a more coherent belief system is humanism for it seems logical and
as a person being in a society where people ask for facts or evidence and does not
believe in things that cannot be seen in their own eyes, I believe then humanism
answers that question. But the faith that I believe strongly which explains the
complexities of the human experience is the biblical faith because it is what I have
grown in to, and been practicing since I was a kid. Though I view death as something
natural but I like their perspective in creation where everything God created is good
which in contrast with the Buddhism and Hinduism’s view on life, where life is full of
suffering.