This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, June 6.
I am reading an article on ABC7chicago.com that reports 53 people were shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. As of the time I wrote this article, 11 have died. I guess there are two ways to look at this news; both of them are horrible. The first way is to look at it is there were 53 instances when someone saw the only option left was to shoot someone. That is pretty awful. The other way to look at it is that in the crime ridden city of Chicago, a city of almost 9,000,000 people, there were ONLY 53 times when someone felt they had no other option than to shoot someone. Honestly, that perspective might actually be worse because this position doesn’t expect anything better to happen.
I know I am going to get emails from many of you telling me this means we need to ban guns, or issue more guns, or have more fathers in the homes, or have more government programs for kids. Maybe these options would help and maybe these options won’t. But can we all agree that regardless of the systemic issues of people feeling the need to shoot others, there is something even more wrong with society?
I believe the real problem here is a spiritual issue. You can ban guns, or you can require every person to open carry an AK-47 and that isn’t going to fix the reason why people feel the need to shoot other people. The real problem we are looking at is what is known as nihilism. The simple definition of nihilism is a belief that nothing matters because there is nothing beyond the here and now. What you see is what you get and there is nothing more. There is no God, there is no hope, there is nothing but death. What nihilism usually leads to is a desire to maximize the moment no matter the cost. Let me explain.
Since nothing matters and we are all just heading for nothing once our bodies die, then the highest good is to take as much as possible now by any means necessary. The popular slogan you hear that comes from nihilism is you only live once. That mentality creates a desire to never be hindered by anything because what is the point of learning and growing? Every minute you spend lacking something is a minute wasted of the only life you have.
Nihilism leads to one of two possible outcomes. The first one is that you will have someone who is ruthless to the point of being out of control. They are going to take all they can get from anyone or from any place. They have no morals or guiding principles because those kinds of things slow you down. Nihilism means that the self is the most valuable thing in your world and everything you do should be in service to satisfying your needs and desires. This leads to a person who is wealthy in a worldly sense but lacks any substance in their lives. They stand for nothing, they contribute nothing, and they are worth nothing. This mindset is best illustrated by Ebenezer Scrooge prior to the Christmas Eve ghosts.
But there is a far more dangerous result of nihilism that can happen. This is the person who feels the world has cheated them out of the one life they were given. They did not have access to the wealth, sex partners, status, or power they felt entitled to because someone in the world took that opportunity from them. Nihilism expressed in this way ends up with an explosion. In children who don’t know better, it looks like a tantrum. In older people who never left childish selfishness behind them, it ends up becoming violent. It can be violent toward themselves (self-harm) or it can be violent toward others. Lashing out in violence either toward yourself or toward someone else is the ultimate act of nihilism that could not be satisfied.
This is exactly why nihilism is an incredibly dangerous mindset. When you expect the world to revolve around you, you are set up for something terrible to happen. Either you are going to have to force other people to be in orbit around you, or you will never find any satisfaction in life. And since there is nothing beyond the here and now, this leads to anger and a desire to hurt someone.
The best antidote to nihilism is to be involved in a service organization. Any organization that helps you see that the world does not revolve around you. To no one’s surprise, my favorite example of this type of organization is the Church but there are a variety of other service opportunities around our great city to help you make a contribution to the greater good. There is both relief and satisfaction in doing something meaningful, not the least of which includes defeating nihilism in your life.