ST #47: Nihilism, Consumerism and the Islamic Antidote — Part 3: Nihilism, Inception To Escape (2021-12-22) #

0:00:12 assalamualaikum brothers and sisters
0:00:14 welcome back to the sapiens thoughts
0:00:16 video series where we're discussing
0:00:18 nihilism consumerism and the islamic
0:00:20 antidote to both
0:00:23 now in this episode we're going to look
0:00:25 at the direct link between
0:00:28 the ideas promoted by the enlightenment
0:00:31 philosophers and
0:00:33 nihilism so why is it the question we're
0:00:36 going to be addressing is why
0:00:38 does godlessness lead to nihilism why
0:00:40 does why is it the case that when you
0:00:42 deny god whatever worldview you may come
0:00:46 up with or follow but one which denies
0:00:49 a creator
0:00:51 why does that entail that you would
0:00:53 inevitably end up
0:00:55 in or with nihilism now the reason is
0:00:59 very simple
0:01:00 when you deny god
0:01:02 essentially what you're saying is that
0:01:03 there is no creator there is no cause
0:01:06 behind
0:01:07 the universe behind existence
0:01:11 and ultimately what you're essentially
0:01:13 saying therefore is that everything
0:01:16 that exists
0:01:18 the universe and everything within the
0:01:20 universe
0:01:21 is a result of
0:01:24 an accident just it's one big accident
0:01:27 essentially the universe and everything
0:01:29 that exists is one big accident because
0:01:31 there is no god there is no cause there
0:01:33 is no creator behind all of this now if
0:01:35 this is the case if everything is one
0:01:37 big accident that means
0:01:39 you and me us included are also just
0:01:42 accidents
0:01:43 everything is an accident and accidents
0:01:46 especially from a godless perspective
0:01:48 accidents don't have
0:01:51 a purpose an objective accidents just
0:01:53 happen
0:01:54 it's like when you spill milk well it's
0:01:56 just spilt milk obviously from an
0:01:57 islamic perspective we believe
0:01:58 everything has a reason behind it
0:02:00 however from a godless perspective it's
0:02:02 just an accident it means nothing
0:02:05 now
0:02:06 if you mean nothing and everything
0:02:09 around you means nothing that means
0:02:10 everything about your existence your
0:02:12 life means nothing there is no meaning
0:02:14 behind anything
0:02:15 so
0:02:17 ultimately
0:02:18 you have ended up with nihilism this is
0:02:21 nihilism everything is meaningless
0:02:23 life is meaningless your existence is
0:02:25 meaningless there is no purpose there is
0:02:26 no rhyme or reason behind your existence
0:02:30 now understanding this guys
0:02:33 let's look at this idea that was
0:02:34 proposed by the enlightenment
0:02:36 philosophers and thinkers that that of
0:02:38 progress worldly progress our objective
0:02:41 is to create a worldly paradise
0:02:43 now this is a very interesting
0:02:46 proposition
0:02:47 because on one end
0:02:49 this leads to nihilism because you're
0:02:51 turning away from god and we've seen how
0:02:53 that can lead to nihilism but on the
0:02:55 other end it also acts as a patch
0:02:58 a temporary fix
0:03:00 for that nihilism because
0:03:02 although you've proposed an idea which
0:03:04 takes people away from god
0:03:06 but the idea itself is giving human
0:03:08 beings a purpose
0:03:10 a goal which is to create a worldly
0:03:12 paradise so it's a very interesting
0:03:15 proposition and therefore it it sort of
0:03:17 patched that problem that people would
0:03:19 inevitably fall into and as the
0:03:21 centuries and decades went by and people
0:03:23 became more and more godless you know
0:03:26 more and more atheistic
0:03:28 in their thinking
0:03:29 in in what they followed
0:03:31 the more they experienced nihilism so
0:03:34 the problem of nihilism didn't go away
0:03:36 although it was patched by the
0:03:37 enlightenment thinkers it was still
0:03:39 there but the more people
0:03:40 moved away from god and as we mentioned
0:03:42 the enlightenment thinkers weren't
0:03:43 necessarily atheists they believed in
0:03:45 natural theology they believed in a
0:03:47 cause a creator out there you know that
0:03:49 created everything and ordered
0:03:50 everything however didn't follow you
0:03:52 know weren't the traditional theists if
0:03:55 you like
0:03:56 but as the decades went by they became
0:03:58 more people became more and more
0:03:59 atheistic and as they became more more
0:04:01 atheistic the more they felt more and
0:04:03 more into nihilism
0:04:05 so
0:04:06 understanding this
0:04:09 we need to now move on and really sort
0:04:11 of analyze nihilism we need to really
0:04:13 understand what is nihilism now let's go
0:04:15 by you know a dictionary definition to
0:04:17 start off with if you look at oxford
0:04:18 they state that the belief that life has
0:04:20 no meaning or purpose and that religious
0:04:23 and moral principles have no value
0:04:26 this is a sort of general definition if
0:04:28 we're to really sort of summarize this
0:04:30 and condense this down we can say
0:04:31 nihilism means
0:04:33 the absence of meaning there is no
0:04:34 meaning behind anything
0:04:36 now
0:04:37 donald a crosby in his book spectra of
0:04:39 the absurd which is a phenomenal book on
0:04:41 the topic of nihilism he breaks down
0:04:43 nihilism into five distinct categories
0:04:46 they are moral nihilism epistemological
0:04:48 nihilism cosmic nihilism existential
0:04:50 nihilism and political nihilism i want
0:04:52 to focus on the first four political
0:04:54 nihilism isn't really uh relevant to our
0:04:56 discussion here but
0:04:58 if we look at the first four moral
0:04:59 nihilism and just to give you a bit of
0:05:01 uh context to this moral nihilism is
0:05:03 referring to you know the point that
0:05:05 there is no objectivity behind morals
0:05:07 there is no truth behind morals
0:05:09 epistemological nihilism is that there
0:05:12 is
0:05:12 there are no
0:05:14 quote-unquote absolute truths or facts
0:05:16 it's there is no such thing so it's
0:05:18 linked to moral nihilism as well to a
0:05:20 degree and you'll notice all of these
0:05:21 categories do link to one another in
0:05:23 some way but they have their distinct
0:05:26 understanding too so
0:05:27 epistemological nihilism is that there
0:05:29 is no
0:05:30 what you call truth uh or there are no
0:05:33 facts it's it's all sort of subjective
0:05:35 and up to the individual as to determine
0:05:37 as to what they believe is true what
0:05:39 they believe is a fact
0:05:41 then you have cosmic nihilism which is
0:05:42 the understanding that there is no
0:05:44 intelligibility behind our cosmos our
0:05:46 universe you know that it's it's that
0:05:49 the universe and nature is indifferent
0:05:51 to us humans there is no rhyme or reason
0:05:53 no order behind our universe itself and
0:05:55 existential nihilism is more
0:05:57 specifically focused on the idea that
0:05:59 life itself
0:06:01 is meaningless that there is no meaning
0:06:03 or purpose behind our existence
0:06:06 now these are the sort of different
0:06:07 categories of nihilism
0:06:09 but what's very interesting is if you
0:06:10 really
0:06:11 think about them you realize that not
0:06:13 only are they linked to one another but
0:06:14 they all ultimately lead to a type of
0:06:16 existential nihilism that essentially
0:06:18 life itself is meaningless and in life
0:06:21 and our conscious life that we can think
0:06:23 about the world the the cosmos morals
0:06:25 ethics we are ethical beings you know
0:06:28 everything is meaningless so it all
0:06:30 boils down to this meaninglessness
0:06:32 everything is completely and utterly
0:06:34 meaningless now why is this a problem
0:06:37 one may ask well you know fine there is
0:06:39 no meaning behind our existence there's
0:06:41 no meaning behind anything morals ethics
0:06:43 the cosmos whatever there's no meaning
0:06:45 behind all of these things why is this a
0:06:46 problem
0:06:47 someone may ask this question well
0:06:49 essentially as human beings we are
0:06:52 meaning driven creatures
0:06:54 we seek meaning behind everything we see
0:06:58 everything through the lens of meaning
0:07:00 think about it for a second when you
0:07:01 wake up in the morning
0:07:03 and you get out of bed say at 9am monday
0:07:06 to friday it's for a reason there is a
0:07:08 purpose behind it there is meaning
0:07:09 behind you getting out of bed at 9 00 am
0:07:11 when you get to bed at 10 pm at night
0:07:13 there's a meaning behind that there's a
0:07:15 reason behind that there is a purpose
0:07:16 behind that and everything you do in
0:07:19 between from waking up to going to sleep
0:07:21 you do for a reason a purpose a meaning
0:07:24 our lives are ordered
0:07:26 via meaning
0:07:28 not only this when we look at the world
0:07:30 around us when we try to understand the
0:07:32 world around us we ascribe meaning to
0:07:34 the world we ascribe meaning to the
0:07:36 things around us we want to get to the
0:07:38 bottom of you know the
0:07:40 things understanding things the meaning
0:07:42 behind things that's what scientists do
0:07:44 all the time
0:07:45 seeking the meaning behind things the
0:07:47 purpose of things
0:07:49 not only this when we make things as
0:07:52 human beings when we produce things as
0:07:54 human beings which is natural to human
0:07:55 beings we do this we've been doing this
0:07:57 forever
0:07:58 we make things and design things with
0:08:00 purpose
0:08:01 for a reason things that have a meaning
0:08:04 so we're meaning driven creatures we
0:08:06 can't escape this and therefore it's
0:08:08 natural that we would
0:08:10 we would apply the same thinking to
0:08:12 ourselves well what is the meaning of my
0:08:14 existence what is the meaning of my life
0:08:16 what is the ultimate purpose to my life
0:08:19 this is a fundamental question and not
0:08:21 only is this an extremely important
0:08:23 question for human beings one we can't
0:08:25 run away from or escape
0:08:26 but it's a question that if unanswered
0:08:29 adequately
0:08:30 leads to a lot of despair a lot of
0:08:33 anxiety a lot of pain existential angst
0:08:36 as it was referred to by the
0:08:38 existentialist philosophers it we can't
0:08:40 it's not something you're like oh life
0:08:42 is meaningless
0:08:44 that's it i'm gonna sit there and do
0:08:45 nothing i'm okay with that i'm happy
0:08:47 about that you know it causes a lot of
0:08:49 pain it causes a lot of distress
0:08:51 and if you're someone that's experienced
0:08:53 this you know i'm someone that's
0:08:54 personally experienced this and it leads
0:08:56 to leads you to a very dark place
0:08:59 you know and to a place
0:09:02 that when you're there you can't think
0:09:03 about anything else you can't focus on
0:09:05 anything else you can't worry about
0:09:06 anything else everything else in life
0:09:08 that we assume to be what life is all
0:09:10 about normally becomes trivial
0:09:13 pointless
0:09:14 work eating
0:09:16 you know taking care of yourself family
0:09:19 all of these things become trivial when
0:09:20 you're really in the dark spot when you
0:09:22 don't know who you are when you really
0:09:24 engage that question so it's a
0:09:25 fundamental question it is a big problem
0:09:27 nihilism is a huge huge huge problem
0:09:30 now
0:09:31 how is how has modernity tried to deal
0:09:34 with nihilism this is another thing we
0:09:35 need to look at
0:09:37 now there's a couple of things that i'm
0:09:38 going to mention here but this is not an
0:09:40 exhaustive list by you know any stretch
0:09:42 however these are some of the key ways
0:09:44 that modernity has tried to deal with
0:09:47 nihilism which is a rampant problem i
0:09:49 would even call it the achilles heel of
0:09:51 modernity nihilism is the achilles heel
0:09:53 of modernity
0:09:55 now in the 19th century you are the
0:09:56 existentialist philosophers now these
0:09:58 were a group of philosophers that
0:10:00 focused on addressing these fundamental
0:10:03 questions that humans have in regards to
0:10:04 our existence
0:10:06 our purpose why are we here how we to
0:10:08 live how we to engage with the world
0:10:10 around us how we to understand the world
0:10:12 around us now these philosophers
0:10:14 included people like niche jean-paul
0:10:16 sartre albert camus kierkegaard and the
0:10:19 list goes on
0:10:20 and these philosophers try to address
0:10:22 this problem you have to now also
0:10:24 remember the context there
0:10:25 the world has experienced world war one
0:10:28 world war ii
0:10:30 therefore human beings have experienced
0:10:33 atrocities bloodshed corruption
0:10:36 you know a lot of evil people have
0:10:38 experienced
0:10:40 what they refer to as the irrational
0:10:42 aspects of nature of human beings
0:10:45 and this has further pushed people now
0:10:47 to a state of despair
0:10:50 and nihilism
0:10:53 and now and this is why the the
0:10:55 existentialist philosophers came really
0:10:57 popular at this time in history and they
0:10:59 try to address this problem of
0:11:01 meaninglessness how do we deal with it
0:11:03 unlike the new atheists today they were
0:11:06 actually people who really thought about
0:11:07 these questions and understood well
0:11:09 within the absence of god
0:11:11 there is no ultimate meaning to life
0:11:13 this is something you'll find common
0:11:14 amongst all of these these
0:11:16 existentialist thinkers and philosophers
0:11:18 most of them acknowledged that there is
0:11:20 no ultimate meaning to life they began
0:11:22 with that point and then they thought
0:11:24 okay now how do we
0:11:25 how do we remedy this this is what they
0:11:27 essentially try to do
0:11:29 now for example jean-paul sartre his
0:11:31 much of his writing is about taking
0:11:33 responsibility living a responsible life
0:11:35 and so on and so forth although life is
0:11:37 ultimately meaningless
0:11:38 so he tried to patch that problem
0:11:43 nietzsche tried to do something very
0:11:44 similar you know nietzsche's idea you
0:11:46 know he proposed this idea of the
0:11:48 ubermensch or the superman and we're
0:11:50 going to discuss this in a bit more
0:11:51 detail in a minute so i'm not going to
0:11:53 go into too much detail about that right
0:11:54 now but this was what he proposed and
0:11:56 again it was about creating your own
0:11:57 value creating your own meaning system
0:11:59 as a human being realizing that
0:12:00 ultimately there is no meaning to life
0:12:02 um camus on the other hand just talked
0:12:05 about the absurd what you refer to the
0:12:06 is the absurd which was that on one end
0:12:08 we have to acknowledge that without god
0:12:11 life is at bottom ultimately meaningless
0:12:14 and once you acknowledge this well
0:12:15 yet there's another problem which is
0:12:17 that man can't help but seek meaning so
0:12:19 now you you're in this place of
0:12:21 absurdity which is on one end
0:12:24 you understand that there is no ultimate
0:12:26 meaning to life but on the other end you
0:12:27 can't help but seek meaning and you're
0:12:29 between this struggle throughout your
0:12:31 life and you have to navigate this space
0:12:32 essentially so this is how how they
0:12:35 would so try to tackle this issue of
0:12:37 nihilism but ultimately what they were
0:12:39 doing
0:12:40 is
0:12:41 they were just
0:12:43 making things up
0:12:44 in a crude way if i was to summarize
0:12:46 this they were literally making up
0:12:49 things
0:12:50 to
0:12:50 plug this hole which they acknowledged
0:12:52 which was life is ultimately meaningless
0:12:54 so they had no answers to this question
0:12:56 all they were saying is what you can do
0:12:57 is you can make up an objective for
0:12:59 yourself
0:13:00 a something that's more virtuous and
0:13:03 something that has some ethical drive to
0:13:05 it you know that you are to have a
0:13:06 higher value system you have to be a
0:13:08 responsible human being take care of
0:13:09 others but give make up your own meaning
0:13:12 and they try to also suggest that this
0:13:14 was
0:13:14 in some way somehow
0:13:17 you know um
0:13:19 a meaningful thing to do now on one
0:13:21 level you can understand what they did
0:13:22 and you can respect this and you can
0:13:24 really sort of commend them for this
0:13:26 but on another level you have to realize
0:13:28 and acknowledge that this is not really
0:13:30 addressing the problem because all one
0:13:32 has to do is
0:13:33 sit down and think to themselves you
0:13:34 know what as good as this sounds
0:13:36 this is nothing short of lying to myself
0:13:38 i'm just making this up this ultimately
0:13:40 means nothing
0:13:41 ultimately it means nothing because
0:13:43 ultimately my life life at bottom has no
0:13:45 meaning or purpose so that was one way
0:13:47 they tried to address
0:13:49 you know modernity has tried to address
0:13:51 nihilism more recently we've had other
0:13:54 philosophies world views ways of looking
0:13:56 at life you can say such as hedonism
0:13:59 which is the idea just go do whatever
0:14:00 you want the yolo mentality enjoy
0:14:02 yourself have fun go out there express
0:14:05 yourself fulfill your desires you know
0:14:08 just just enjoy yourself and that is the
0:14:10 meaning of life and people have engaged
0:14:12 in this and people are engaging in this
0:14:13 to many different levels today you know
0:14:16 however this is not solving the problem
0:14:18 because we see time and again people
0:14:20 that have a lot of wealth have a lot of
0:14:22 disposable income money
0:14:24 they go and they buy loads of expensive
0:14:26 things go enjoy themselves you know
0:14:28 fulfill their desires to the max however
0:14:31 they still
0:14:32 are not satisfied and truly happy on a
0:14:34 deep
0:14:35 level there's still something missing
0:14:37 you know how many times do we hear of
0:14:39 actors committing suicide you know or
0:14:41 really rich and affluent people
0:14:44 suffering from depression and anxiety
0:14:46 time and again we see these stories over
0:14:48 and over again
0:14:50 another way is consumerism
0:14:52 and we're going to go into a lot more
0:14:53 detail here with consumerism later on in
0:14:55 this video series but consumerism is
0:14:58 another way
0:14:59 which human beings have tried to deal
0:15:02 with the problem of nihilism well life
0:15:04 is meaningless
0:15:05 maybe i'm going to find meaning through
0:15:07 material possessions i go buy more
0:15:08 things it gives meaning to my life and
0:15:11 this is something that's been pushed and
0:15:12 promoted by uh you know the people that
0:15:16 are running these systems if you like
0:15:18 you know because this you know it's like
0:15:19 killing two birds with one stone on one
0:15:21 end is something that's going to lead to
0:15:24 exponential economic growth is going to
0:15:25 lead to us attaining paradise on earth
0:15:27 and at the same time it may just you
0:15:28 know if it helps fill a void of a human
0:15:30 being of emptiness and meaninglessness
0:15:32 then so be it you know
0:15:34 the other way is different types of
0:15:35 escapism
0:15:37 drugs is a very common thing alcohol
0:15:39 abuse and more recently with the youth
0:15:42 gaming you know people are choosing to
0:15:44 lose themselves on this in this in this
0:15:46 digital sphere
0:15:47 spending hours a day playing games and
0:15:50 it's very interesting the games are
0:15:51 designed there are levels in the game
0:15:53 right you have a purpose an objective in
0:15:55 a game your character has an objective
0:15:57 you have to overcome and conquer each
0:15:59 level and move on to the next level and
0:16:01 you have this sense of responsibility
0:16:03 and meaning that's given to you in this
0:16:04 digital space
0:16:06 but it's unfortunate that people are
0:16:08 choosing to lose themselves in these
0:16:09 games because that's not reality you
0:16:11 know people especially the young people
0:16:13 are completely cutting off from the real
0:16:14 world and taking responsibility for
0:16:16 their lives and things going on around
0:16:18 them so these are the ways these are the
0:16:20 failed ways that
0:16:23 modernity has tried to deal with or
0:16:25 tackle the problem of nihilism but at
0:16:27 bottom you cannot run away from or
0:16:30 escape nihilism if you continue to deny
0:16:33 god that is the key point here you can
0:16:35 try finding patches you could try to
0:16:37 come up with some fancy you know
0:16:40 you know deep sounding philosophies and
0:16:42 ideas but fundamentally you're still not
0:16:45 going to be able to escape this problem
0:16:47 so in the next video brothers and
0:16:49 sisters we're going to be
0:16:50 addressing or looking into nihilism a
0:16:52 little bit more deeply in particular
0:16:54 nietzsche's specific views in regards to
0:16:56 nihilism and how he tried to tackle it
0:16:58 and what his contentions were against
0:17:01 religion and the religious answer to
0:17:02 nihilism
0:17:04 so yeah i'll leave you guys with this
0:17:06 let me know your thoughts in the
0:17:07 comments section below and i'll see you
0:17:08 guys next time assalamu alaikum