Is it possible to believe in nothing?

By Rifah Tasnim Labonno (22201040) 

Imagine you are gazing at a night sky full of mesmerizing stars shining brightly. Looking at the stars, suddenly you start thinking about how the little stars aren’t actually little, you are. You start contemplating about how you are just a tiny speck of space-dust floating in this universe. Like a quicksand dragging you down in a hole of purposelessness, you think that maybe your whole life is not actually what you’ve been thinking it is. So, what will come out of what we’re doing today or tomorrow? What will come out of our whole life as in the end we have to die anyway? If nothing really matters and we are just a bunch of randomly combined sentient atoms, then in the grand scheme of things, does it even matter? As a species, human beings have searched for the meaning of life ever since it has gained consciousness, which gave birth to many branches of philosophies. A somewhat popular one being “Nihilism”. 

So, what exactly is nihilism? To put it simply, it’s the belief in nothing. If you’re told to stop and think about your core values and why you believe in them, eventually you may arrive at a point where there’s no definite answer, you arrive at nothing. Let’s bring the glass cup metaphor for example. Is the glass half empty or half full? An optimist says that it’s half full and to a pessimist, it’s half empty. But to a nihilist, none of it matters! So why not just throw the glass away and drink straight from the tap? 

Nihilism comes from the Latin word “nihil”, which means nothing. It’s a philosophy that can be traced back to ancient Greece, or perhaps even earlier. Like any other philosophical label, it comes with diversity as well as disagreement over what should and shouldn’t be counted as nihilism. Many different forms of nihilism may include political, moral, metaphysical, cosmic and existential nihilism. Some people accept nihilistic conclusions philosophically, while others relate to nihilistic themes through intuition, personal experience, or personal expression.

 

Nihilism, as a concept, is not very easy to understand. If you believe in nothing then won’t that nothing become something you believe in? But since now you believe in something, then there is no nihilism. In that case, believing in nothing is a self-refuting idea. So, to make sense of it all, nihilism may sometimes be confused with pessimism, cynicism and apathy.  But these concepts are inherently negative in nature, while nihilism is neutral and much more closely related to idealism. It is like a blank canvas, upon which you, the artist can paint, rather than the painting itself. It can lead one to retire from one’s desires to end one’s sufferings or be used to destroy old values and reconstruct new ones.  

Though nihilism may come off as a depressing way of thinking, believing in nothing might be more positive than it seems. Individual existential freedom and self-awareness enable man to create his own purpose for himself through his choices and actions, potentially giving meaning to the meaninglessness of life and resolving the nihilistic conclusion. If nothing really has a meaning, we are free to give it meaning ourselves. If life truly has no meaning and we have no reason to be here, our response should  be to make the best of a bad situation. Because, at the end of the day, simply existing is a reason enough to live.