Existentialism several important existential thinkers are atheists.

Also, the 1st existential thinker although Christian, actually lived in the Romantic Era So, to understand existentialism thought in the romantic era. Please indulge me as i try to review the religion of the romantic in a paragraph or two.

Although the romantic were really deist and not , strictly speaking . Christian europeans and americans still felt they belong to a "christian" culture not hardcore christian but christian with a small "c" perhaps .

Why ? some .sort of . christian thought was still around .

God was still around .

Jesus minus the miracles was regarded was regarded as a historical figure and as a positive role model Many saw god more in nature than in the bible , but at least they read it . Many believed vaguely in a heaven ; sometimes even a hell .

And besides what the heck would they consider

themselves?????

Very few were born jewish almost none had ever seen an islamic , buddhist or hindu person let alone understood those faiths . Atheism just wasn't being considered yet .

So , in conclusion the " man on the street " in europe and America still

considered himself a Christian . But , of course , being a Christian meant almost nothing . It meant being "nice". This wimpy-assed christian doesn't contradict deism; it is the natural result of deism . And at its best it was expressed and practiced through the "social gospel" (think Jean Val Jean at the soup kitchen). All of this leads us to .

Soren Kierkegaard (18131855): The father of existentialism but notice he grew up in the Romantic Era. He was a sincere Christian and that was a problem because he was surrounded by a bunch of wimpy -assed , sissy , half - hearted christians .

In Fact

He saw it as his mission in life to reintroduce Christianly to a "christian" culture and as he does so he develops some powerful philosophic ideas !

K.analyzed the word "existence" He was danish and found several different danish words that in english are all translated "to exist"

He found one that refers to an existence that only humans have. It is self-conscious Humans can choose ("choice " is one of the those words Existentialists dog on)what they will be with this existence But there are choices (arby`s or MacDonald`s ) and there are choices (i "choose " no to engage in this affair even though i am guaranteed not to get caught ) and

genuine , real, existentialism choices are only made through an inward quality that K. called "passion". For K. the highest "passion" is faith Now this "faith " could be in christ and for K. it was but he openly admitted /claimed that christianity could not be understood rationally or logically . In fact he said it is not important to understand it , it is important to believe

it .

Of course to believe in something you don't and cant understand is ABSURD , but " the absurd " like the concept of CHOICE is a common theme in existential literature as you shall see. Actually , the present teenage fascination with the phrase "thats so random" can be traced back to K`s illogical , absurd idea

Now this philosophy , that it is more important to believe than to understand has a name it has come to be known as The Wizard of Oz philosophy . The real question though is Why??? why would K. think it more important to believe than understand? Well , he is forced to think this force to think for 2 reasons The Romantic culture he grew up in taught that

intuition/emotion is greater than logic . Darwins theory of evolution stared about this time; it seemed to "disprove" the bible.