Philosophy Paper #3 - Grade: A PDF

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David Rodriguez...

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Religion and Nothingness This weeks paper focuses on Religion and Nothingness by the philosopher Keiji Nishitani. Specifically this reading is on Nihilism and nihility East and West-Nishitani’s Zen Buddhist existential way of thinking. I expect his philosophy to be a new outlook on existentialism. His biggest concern is the effect nihilism has on religion. He believes nihilism, which considers religion to be irrelevant to humankind, is an outgrowth of science and innovation. This is hard for Nishitani to acknowledge because he preaches that it’s only in the domain of religion that individuals discover meaning. Nishitani opens Religion and Nothingness with the inquiry, “What is religion?” For him, personally, religion includes different types of worship yet in addition the subject of human importance and the nature of extreme reality. He accepts that religion is a necessity to humans since it enables humans to understand the “element source” (as Nishitani refers to it, “absolute nothingness”) of all presence which incorporates the ultimate reality. Nishitani’s conception of emptiness is negative because it uncovers the insubstantiality lies the true reality of all existence and to arrive at this people must go through nihility (negative stage of meaningless). An authentic religious orientation to life begins when a person faces ever-present nihility. The expression “nothingness” in both Nishitani’s personal life and the Buddhist tradition is the thing that renders meaningless all that hold as meaningful. Death and uncertainty are companions in human existence. Along these lines, the premise of religion is the person’s quet for extreme reality including the entry through nihility and the eventual breakthrough into “the field of emptiness”...