Existentialism is about finding your personal purpose of life and your meaning for existence. It is about making our own authentic choices for us to learn from to and increase our thinking and interpretation of life. An existentialist doesn’t let others tell him the meaning of life, but instead goes out and finds its meaning for himself.
Existentialism is necessity to give true and authentic meaning to religion, life and the way we live our lives. Firstly, we see in “Did religion steal our spirituality”, existentialism gives meaning to religion.The author says “when religion is presented as the ultimate answer instead of the tool, problems arise”. This quote emphasize on a very important teaching of existentialism, which is to not put full belief of life in others, but to explore and learn for yourself. When you make religion the ultimate answer, you are letting past text live your life for you; instead you should let religion be a tool of guidance for your life.
This key concept of existentialism gives authentic meaning to religion. Secondly, in the short story “The School” we see existentialism giving meaning to our lives.Upon seeing many deaths, the children of the school ask the teacher “is death that which gives meaning to life? ” to which the teacher replies “no, life is that which gives meaning to life”. This quote best explains existentialism if you were to try and explain it to young elementary children in a few words. It is your own life that which gives meaning to life, in other words, you must find a meaning to existence through your own experiences.
This is an example of a vital concept of existentialism giving true meaning to life.Lastly, existentialism gives authentic meaning to the way we live our lives and the decisions we make in them. We see this in the play “Duet for bear and dog” where the dog lives the life of a lie, obeying all his owner’s commands, making none of his own decisions and he says “times like this I wish I was a dingo”. This quote expresses a very important part of existentialism which is freedom. Living our lives to our own free will and making our own authentic choices without anyone’s discretion. This is a very important part of existentialism and this is an example of how it gives true meaning to the way we live our lives.
