Shed Weight

Things You Only Notice When They're Gone

abandonment

Santa Claus

dad joke

magician

divorce

divorcee

one-liner

acronym

playing hookie

longevity

parenting

turtle

country music

self-driving car

losing things

depression

friendship

Default

is the state of man in a world where God does not exist, giving him no excuses and condemning him to make of himself and his morals what he wants in this world with no rules.

The existentialist . . . finds it extremely embarrassing that God does not exist, for there disappears with Him all possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven. There can no longer be any good a priori, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. It is nowhere written that 'the good' exist, that one must be honest or must not lie, since we are now upon the plane where there are only men. Dostoevsky once wrote: 'If God did not exist, everything would be permitted'... and that, for existentialism, is the starting point. Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist, and man is in consequence forlorn, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself. He discovers forthwith, that he is without excuse. For if indeed existence precedes essence, one will never be able to explain one's action by reference to a given and specific human nature... in other words, there is no determinism man is free, man is freedom. Nor, on the other hand, if God does not exist, are we provided with any values or commands that could legitimise our behaviour. Thus we have neither behind us, nor before us in a luminous realm of values, any means of justification or excuse. We are left alone, without excuse. That is what I mean when I say that man is condemned to be free. Condemned, because he did not create himself, yet is nevertheless at liberty, and from the moment that he is thrown into this world he is responsible for everything he does

is the defining quality of man. Man is never alone - he's always abandoned.

Man is never alone-he's always abandoned.

abandonment, n.All

abandonment