Can Christians be nihilists? Not a chance!

Many believers argue that atheism is nihilistic.  Atheists respond to this contention as if it were a personal insult. This response naturally leads to an important question: What is Nihilism?

Existential nihilism is defined as "the notion that life has no intrinsic meaning or value, and it is, no doubt, the most commonly used and understood sense of the word today.” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) Put simply, nihilists deny ‘absolutes’ exist, at least in the moral, political or social spheres.

Theists disagree. They propose that such social constructs should be oriented towards their particular end which reflects an absolute good. Believers cannot hold to the tenets of faith while accepting the proposition that a society can be fruitfully nurtured without moral absolutes. They are by their particular natures, mutually contradictory propositions. The denial of the existence of ‘absolutes’ would vitiate the truth of God and His influence in this world.

The dividing line between theists and nihilists is whether such a thing as ‘absolute’ right and wrong exists.  Religions strive to make use of faith as a ‘compass’ by which to navigate cultures towards the ‘common good’ and to avoid the perils of ‘evil’.  By what ‘standards’ do postmodern nihilists  navigate  turbulent waters? The solution offered is to say that we will ‘know’ what to do based upon the situation of the moment, guided by some innate collective consciousness of what constitutes right and wrong.  Yet these human talents have failed societies and cultures time and time again.

When faced with the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, or  ‘ethnic cleansing’, can one  hold  a belief in an innate, universal understanding of right and wrong to protect and guide humanity if one rejects a belief an 'ultimate' right and wrong?  I realize that different participants in these slaughters claimed to be adherents of different religious faiths, but it was not religion that fired their conflict. It was ethnic and national passions that fueled these heinous crimes against humanity. Nihilists have nothing to offer in response to such barbarism.

Christians do. They believe that  a ‘Natural Law’ which God imprinted upon creation and written within our hearts exists. It imposes a higher authority than the State or tribal loyalty. It calls them to oppose such evils because God demands it, not because of some collective human consciousness forces it. Sacred scriptures and  corpus of theology provides a fount of wisdom and experience to assist believers in acting according to the prescripts of this natural law. It establishes that war can only be waged in defense of innocent life. It teaches that civilians are to be protected. It demonstrates that those whom the state describes as being the ‘enemy’ are actually our brothers and sisters, irrespective of any  detail that places them outside of a tribal or national group.

Can all of these horrors be brought to the feet of atheists? Clearly not. Many who do not believe in God are as horrified when confronted with such human depravity as any believer. Nor can we say that all atheists are certainly knowing advocates of nihilism. Whether or not they accept the divine origins of the Natural Law, they are as capable as believers in accessing its knowledge and following its teachings. Neither can believers claim that they are immune from falling under the influence of propaganda the State wields when they try to whip up a society to attack another. But at least the teachings of faith offers a yardstick by which to measure the ‘rightness’ of such an act of war - a tool that is denied to those who do not hold to the existence of moral, political or social absolutes.