CAMUS AND EXISTENTIALISM: Its Liberation and its Bondage

What is existentialism? Os Guinness defines it this way:

• The philosophy that sees no meaning in the universe and therefore puts a premium on human existence, action, and choice as the way to create our own meaning in life. (The Journey, 108. The following quotations come from this book.)

After all, if there is no Creator, and the creation simply came forth from a purposeless universe, then our lives have no purpose apart from the purposes we assign to them.

For many, this is appealing. It means that they are the captain of their own ship, and nobody can tell them how to navigate it. It means that we are free from the oppressive opinions of others and even from our hyperactive conscience. We are therefore free to navigate to the ports of our own choice, and no one can coherently tell us that we are wrong, since there is no objective wrong.

However, what looks like freedom might not be freedom at all. Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus had been the leading exponents of French existentialism. However, this didn’t make them friends. In Camus’ biography, Herbert R. Lottman wrote:

• Sartre said that Camus needed someone to accuse, and “if it’s not you, it will therefore be the universe.” To which Camus replied that everyone needs to be innocent at any price, even if “one must accuse humankind and the sky.”

Although Camus’ insight into his motives is very refreshing, it also reflects torment and a lack of freedom from his inner drives. It also reflects a bondage, a form of mental imprisonment. In “The Rebel,” Camus wrote:

• I proclaim that I believe in nothing and that everything is absurd, but I cannot doubt the validity of my own proclamation and I am compelled to believe, at least, in my own protest.

If Camus is “compelled to believe,” he is not free, and the freedom that existentialism had promised is, at best, fleeting. Instead, Camus and many atheists experience inner conflict. They don’t believe in any intrinsic and objective values, and yet they are “compelled to believe.” However, while the great majority of today’s atheists continue to insist that they don’t believe in anything, Camus honestly confessed his conflict, and it was dealing with this conflict that had made him a great writer.

However, being a great and esteemed thinker and writer and finding meaning in life are two different things. The French Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux, also confessed this conflict and absurdity:

• The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random among the profusion of the earth and the galaxy of the stars, but that in this prison we can fashion images of ourselves sufficiently powerful to deny our nothingness. (The Walnut Trees of Attenberg)

Malraux confessed the same conflict as did Camus. Man is imprisoned within a meaningless universe but cannot tolerate the meaningless and is coerced into creating a meaning that they know to be non-existent.

Were Camus and Malraux able to resolve this conflict, their battle against absurdity? I don’t know, but it seems to me that, at the very least, we should seek a solution. If I have a pain that refuses to go away, I seek a cure, perhaps elsewhere, beyond my own limited resources.

This is one of the painful dilemmas that had led me to Christ and out of my rabid Zionism. Evening living in Israel, devoted to the land, history, and my people, failed to give me the meaning I so needed. Now, I delight in the limitations and boundaries set for me by my Redeemer. It’s like playing chess. The rules and limitations are necessary for a fulfilling game.

It is a great privilege to serve my God and to live within the freeing confines of His will. I also relish His words that chasten and correct me. For example, today I was reading:

• Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:13-18; ESV)

I cannot explain my joy in receiving His correction. His instruction shows me how unwise I can be and the nature of true wisdom. It reminds me that I must be humble and gentle with others, seeking peace and their welfare, something that I often forget to do.

Yes, it is a joy, even if I cannot explain why. Perhaps it is even another form of bondage. However, if it is, it is the bondage of a fish who knows that he must remain in his element - in the water - for his own good. God is my element.

Oblivion Looms

Atheist Stephen Knight, host of the Godless Spellchecker podcast, acknowledges that “Oblivion looms”:

• “When we reject the imagined supernatural meaning from our existence, what we’re left with is far from a consolation prize. Sure, it’ll be messy at times, sometimes joyous, sometimes miserable, but it’s all we’ll ever know. And it’s ours. We invent comforting lies to distract us from one simple truth: Oblivion looms. So, what are you going to do about it? 

What is the “comforting lie” to which Knight alludes? Heaven, an afterlife! But perhaps the atheist also has his comforting lie – an oblivion where he will not be judged, which allows him to live in any way he wants, at least for now.

The atheist and author of the Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, explained his rejection of the Christian faith:

·       I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning [and moral absolutes]; consequently assumed that it had none…We don’t know because we don’t want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless. (Ends and Mean)

However Knight claims that oblivion is more than a “consolation prize” but an opportunity to take action:

• “I choose to live, laugh, love, travel, create, help others, and learn. And I’m going to do as much of this as I can manage, because the clock is ticking. We create our own meaning, and there’s more than enough to be had. Seize it where you can.”

According to Knight, it’s all up to you to create your “own meaning.” However, we cannot create our own meaning any more than we can create our own truth. A created meaning is a shallow meaning that will eventually become meaningless.

I had a friend who had created his own meaning. He would visit every country in the world and check it off his check-list. However, his wasn’t a meaning founded in reality, and he soon tired of it.

Life can soon become tiring unless we are convinced that our lives have a higher meaning and purpose. One friend got a promotion. This bestowed a sense of meaning, but it didn’t last for more than a couple of weeks.

In contrast, Jesus derived His meaning through service:

·       "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. John 4:34)

I too have no greater food than to serve my God, the One who loves me and has saved me eternally.

Peace: Living According to Your Values

Peace and harmony result when each part of the puzzle finds its proper place.  Peace of mind works similarly. Each of our faculties has to be working in harmony if we are going to have a smooth ride. This is especially true when we live in harmony with our values. Our conscience must give its approval to our values and choices. This isn’t merely a Christian idea. Carlin Flora writes:

• If you aren’t living according to your values, you won’t be happy, no matter how much you are achieving. (“The Pursuit of Happiness,” Psychology Today,  Jan/Feb 2009, pg. 69.)

Flora acknowledges that “Some people, however, aren’t aware of their values.” Even if we do act according to our values, we are often unaware of what these values are. This problem is exacerbated by postmodernism and  moral relativism, where “values” are just a matter of how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Rather than our values directing our lives, our lives, preferences and feelings direct our values. They are consequently no more than our tastes – things we have randomly acquired like the flu.

If this is our values-orientation, we will only live by them when they deliver a payoff, when they work for us. This orientation is unable to provide for us a meaning-of-life, something that ennobles our lives and connects us to something bigger than we are. Consequently, we go no further than connecting to ourselves, and our lives are confined to waiting for the next sensual, mindless fix, the next meal, movie, or distraction.

What then is the answer? Invent a system of values and arbitrarily invest it with meaning? This strategy has often been tried and found wanting. The atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche astutely observed,

• He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

However, inventing this “why to live for” can be deceptively difficult, perhaps even impossible. We may not be able to produce a meaningful set of values from our creative imaginations. Values must be discovered and not invented. Invented values are arbitrary, temporary and subjective and therefore fail to carry the necessary authority to direct our lives.

After a few months in college, I gladly became a nihilist. I refused to believe that we are constrained by certain values or moral absolutes from above. Instead, I believed that I was free to re-create myself. I was the captain of my ship. However, my ship failed to carry me where I ultimately wanted to go – to a place of meaning and peace. It was like simply imagining that I was the savior of the world. Although this fantasy might initially give a sense of self-importance, its ultimate port-of-call was a psychotic non-reality.

If our values are going to govern our lives, we must be convinced of their transcendence. The idea of submitting to a value that is no more than a chemical reaction does not carry the necessary authority to constrain our lower impulses. A strong impulse to take revenge cannot be curbed by the lesser chemical impulse of a value. Our animal impulses will inevitably predominate, and so will depression!

Similarly, basing our value system upon our decision-making capacity suffers from the same weaknesses. Philosopher Charles Taylor writes:

• I am free when I decide for myself what concerns me, rather than being shaped by external influences. Our moral salvation comes from recovering authentic moral contact with ourselves. Self-determining freedom demands that I break the hold of external impositions, and decide for myself alone.

Taylor is convinced that his internal GPS is more authoritative than any external standards. But what if his GPS is no more than an electro-chemical reaction? Why place such weighty expectations upon it?  What is the “self” that it should be our compass? Will it also become a bridge to our ultimate hopes and dreams? Do we find the truth for which we search within its changing dimensions and emotional upheavals? Do not our value judgments require something more stable?

Confusion, instability and the sense that we have no inner core are the fruits of this. Besides, there are many conflicting feelings and ideas in our hearts. What makes the pursuit of justice any more noble than the pursuit of revenge or lust? Aren’t they equally children of the self? Are we then left without any guidance?

Instead, we truly discover ourselves and our values when we view them from a true and unchanging source. In the same way that we need a mirror or a photo to see ourselves as we are, we require something more than just our conflicting inner intuitions as our moral compass.

Perhaps, we are pursuing the antithesis of values and meaning? Perhaps our Western quest for self-sufficiency has blinded us, placing a defective compass in our palm? Instead, we were created for a relationship with the One on whom we can rest our burdens and carry His. Jesus counseled:

• "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

His yoke must become our values. It is under His burden and in His service that we find our rest and sense of authentic self.