Nihilism: The Philosophy of Pointlessness

Nihilism is a philosophy which states that human existence in the universe does not really have a purpose. This is one of the philosophical positions that have drawn a lot of attention and a lot of criticism at the same time from a lot of people around the world.

Nihilism has a few points which seem to form the core of its philosophical position. Firstly, human existence in the universe has no absolute purpose. There is no substantial proof for the existence of a creator or a superpower which could have created everything in the universe, including universe itself. There is no such thing called morality in the universe. In other words, nothing is absolutely immoral. There is no such thing called objective secularism - it does not exist. These are the points made by Nihilism and it back up its claims with some valid arguments.

Due to these points, nihilists consider themselves to be people that are free from social, religious, and moral clutches. In other words, a nihilist might not want to be a part of the main stream society simply because, he does not have to, as he does not believe in socializing as a way of befriending people.

The philosophy of nihilism is often pointed by a lot of people around the world as something that takes away the joy of living in its entirety. People, at least most of them, generally live under the illusion that life needs to lived with certain principles and within certain boundaries. These principles and boundaries differ from society to society and can be completely different all over the world. Also, people generally believe that there is a point in living. Usually, they think that reaching out to a superpower and surrendering to it is the ultimate aim of life. But for a nihilist, none of this makes sense. Simply because, he does not believe in a superpower in the first place and he does not believe in living for something either. In his point of view, living does not have a specific purpose and therefore there is no need to look forward to anything in life. This can be extremely depressing for some people and this is why nihilism has drawn a lot of attention over the years.

A lot of groups like Dada, Futurism, and Deconstructionism have been considered nihilistic in nature by people around the world. Frederic Nietzsche is considered the most famous advocate of nihilism over the years. His quote 'God is dead' is famous for its interpretation which can be equated to nihilism. He said God is dead and man is free, by which he symbolically meant that man therefore is free from the religious, moral, ethical, and cultural clutches, things that nihilism totally denies.