Mock Elenchus in a Movie Theatre

In a recent dream I found myself witnessing the arguments of two individuals. One was boyish looking, lacking of facial hair wearing a high collar. And the other's hair was bushy under his nose and thick over his eyes. They were sitting behind me in the cinema, arguing religion of all things. The boyish one referred to the other as Friedrich and the one with the bushy mustache referred to the boyish one as Soren. At times I found their ambitious disagreements more entertaining than the movie.

Friedrich: But God is dead!

Soren: Your idealistic nihilism is more dead than my God. God will never die. Only faith in Him can and has died, in you! You are the dead one, Nietzsche!

Friedrich: I'd much sooner go mad than die!

Soren: You're already mad, but that's only from my perspective.

Friedrich: So you're giving me that my perspective may be different than yours?

Soren: It may be and is, I'm afraid.

Friedrich: We finally agree. Then it is my perspective that you're a bungling idiot.

(At this point Friedrich Nietzsche laughs so loud that I'm inclined to turn around. Mushroom-like clouds of dust bloom from above his lip as he gives his hearty laugh. Soren sits by, unaffected, sneezing a little.)

Soren: Find me what you may, Friedrich. But I am not the ideal person. A knight of faith you couldn't insult so easily.

Friedrich: Which reminds me, I saw the most ingenious bumper sticker the other day. It said, "My overman beat the crap out of your knight of faith." But all kidding aside, Soren, what does your knight of faith have that my overman does not?

Soren: A burn-free destiny, for one-

Friedrich: Ah! But you're speaking in the next life, with two assumptions. One, that there is a next life. And two, that it is superior to this one.

Soren: My knight of faith lives a life of subjective authenticity. He has uncertainty, passion, and the will to believe anyway. He has courage that even your overman cannot know. To grant one's faith in anything as absurd as Christianity must be the highest act of courageous subjectivity. Name one better, Friedrich!

Friedrich: To go against those same masses and give up on the illusion of religious redemption. If it is so hard to be a Christian, why can I not swing a dead cat without hitting one?

Soren: You can, and probably have, knowing you. But not everyone claiming to be a Christian really is one. The world is full of mock Christians. You wouldn't need to feel so threatened by them if you know that their belief is as illegitimate as Murphy Brown's son.

Friedrich: Threatened? Me? God is dead. His institutions are dying. Jerry Falwall is alive and turning millions away by the day. Soon will be a nihilistic age where only my overman will triumph. Only when you meet an overman, Soren, will you know courage.

Soren: So what does your overman have that my knight of faith does not?

Friedrich: He has his own self, both his higher and lower natures, neither repressed. He has this, his world, to which he is faithful. He has the love of this life, in this world, without the illusions that this world is inferior. And he has his reflective mind that reinforces these ideas. In a nutshell, Kierkegaard, my overman has the world, this one which we both know to exist. Yours only has the next, which may not.

Soren: Which makes faith in that world the highest subjective act! Thank you Mr. Nietzsche, you proved my very point!

At this point in the dream, I had to interject. I shifted in my seat, and offered them both some of my popcorn so they'd shut up. Nietzsche said that popcorn sticks in his teeth and Kierkegaard said something witty like "even jello would stick in those teeth." Then they both inquired on who I am and which one of them I agreed with. I began my great monologue that I can only perform in dreams.

Me: Gentlemen, allow me to introduce myself. I am neither your knight of faith (I motioned to Soren) nor your overman (motioning to Nietzsche). I'm a mere Philosophy student at IUSB, enrolled in Michael Washburn's class Introduction to Existentialism.

Both Soren and Friedrich: Great guy, that Washburn. We haunt his dreams occasionally.

Me: Hopefully tomorrow night so you'll leave me alone. But I digress. My objective in speaking to you both is to say... Friedrich Nietzsche, you are absolutely correct.

Friedrich: (to Soren) She's obviously a brilliant girl.

Soren: I think she put too much vodka in that Pepsi.

Me: And you too, Soren Kierkegaard, are absolutely correct.

Friedrich: (to Soren) Now that I think about it, I agree about the vodka thing.

Soren: What vodka thing? I didn't say anything about any vodka.

Me: Now you may ask each other, how can she agree with both of you? To which I answer with a premise you occasionally put forth, Friedrich. It's all a matter of perspective. Let me briefly summarize your overman and your knight of faith. The overman is strength incarnate, reveling in the beauties of this life while satisfying his desires, both worldly and not. But can an overman not love this life and carry this love so far to greatly anticipate the next life as possibly even more beautiful than this one? This may be unlikely, you may say, Friedrich, but as long as the anticipation of the next life doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of this one, where's the great wrong done? (To Soren) Now don't get me wrong. They shouldn't depend on the next life for salvation, as the slave moralists do. Indeed, they shouldn't even depend on the existence of the next life, for they may be none. But if so, one isn't even disappointed if the next life doesn't exist since this life gives them all the happiness they desire. The despair you've spoken of, Soren, needn't exist if you grant me the premise that God desires our happiness in this life, and if you grant the human race the possibility of achieving this happiness, independent of the next and possible nonexistent life. Subjectivism says that it matters more how we believe than it does what or why we do. So if we believe fervently that we can be happy here, what God would impose that such subjectivity is wrong, that we can only be happy independently of this world? The overman has this courageous independence, not an easy thing to have, mind you. But why can't a knight of faith also have it?

(To Friedrich) And of course, there's the question of morals. Since there is no objective truth, there are no objective morals or values. We become free to create our own and this is precisely what our overman does. Say you are an overman with your own set of morals and values. Unless the morals you live by here on earth are different than those they live by in Heaven, I don't see a problem. And even then I don't see a problem, unless you desire Heaven with its values inferior to your own. If you enjoy the way you live here and Heaven takes those enjoyments and morals away, why would you desire to live in Heaven at all? Concerning those who do, they wouldn't wish to if they didn't find Heaven's values better than those of this world's. This is their perspective, and their prerogative.

You profess that God is dead, meaning the very idea of God's salvation is no longer held in the world's belief. If this is so, then doesn't it imply that having religious faith is indeed a subjective act, if not the highest possible subjective act? The fewer people who truly believe only means that the objective uncertainty is greater. Since objective uncertainty is at a maximum, so too must be the will to believe and the passion by which to believe. If this does not require also the maximum amount of courage, I don't know what does.

Soren, your knight of faith is self sacrificing. Christianity's absurdity makes it harder to have faith than to not. On another level, it almost seems that faith is a response to the fear of being wrong about the afterlife. Better to believe in just case than not believe and burn for it. The very degree of doubt makes belief seem desperate. But strong God fearing people should not feel such apprehension for the next life.

Soren: My knight does not.

Me: I see, but your knight is hard to find. Your yourself said that many Christians are mock Christians, embracing the slave morality your nemesis claims they have. Not only are they in possession of weakness, they're suspicious and condemning of anyone with very strength they lack. Your knight of faith is not so weak, since we've already seen that faith, when authentic, is the highest subjective act.

So this makes you both right. The overman's worship of this world, a world made by beautiful by God Himself, is justified. Indeed it's courageous to find happiness in a meaningless world. The knight of faith's authentic anticipation of the next is equally justified as long as such faith doesn't interfere with living an authentic life while here on earth. The overman is not inferior to the knight of faith and the knight of faith is not inferior to the overman. They are both authentic, subjective existing individuals, living life the fullest way they know how, both courageous in their own ways. They are both equally superior in courage to all the slave moralists, master moralists and mock Christians of the world. And while we live here on earth, neither the overman nor the knight of faith can discredit the other, since there may or may not be an afterlife. The lacking evidence of an afterlife doesn't suggest there isn't one. Where would be the challenge in believing in something we know to exist? And likewise the very notion of Christianity defying common logic tempts us to doubt the faith it is so hard for us to have. We're left at an impasse, unable to claim truth for either side because there are no objective truths.

At this point, my two philosopher friends and I were kicked out of the movie theatre for causing such a disturbance. The usher said if we left quietly he wouldn't call the police. Nietzsche said, "The police are dead!" so we all spent the night in jail. My philosophy didn't phase either, as they both argued all night through iron bars. In the morning of my dream, Nietzsche's sister paid our bail. In the morning after my dream I awoke with a huge headache from thinking so much and I haven't dreamed of any philosophers since.