Artykuły
Emil Cioran’s God, which “exists even if he does not exist”
The aim of the article is to present the attitude of the Romanian thinker Emil Cioran towards God and religion. The author of A Short History of Decay, who was unable to keep faith, but at the same time perceived himself as a religious mind, claims that faith in God is only a masked superiority complex due to which a man, who is afraid of a definite end of his existence, uses prayer and beseeching to plead the eternal being. And, although God is supposed to be a real source of hope and comfort, according to Cioran, he is only a function of human despair, each of his versions comes from a specific person, group or a nation and, as such, he does not exist objectively, cannot answer anybody’s calls or provide help. What is more, whilst a man desires an eternal life, a religion demands renouncing oneself in the name of god, melting in him and forgetting about joys and sorrows of existence, hence although it is a promise of cure, in reality, it cures from being a man and a life as such. It ascribes a moral dimension to everything, forces to explore ultimate problems and beguiles with a promise of eternal springs, while leaving a man with nothing; and in that way, it turns out to be a reaction against life, a sum of empty and dangerous illusions, which do not give happiness but pain, misery and a feeling of being deceived
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