Part of the meaning of life is to focus on the idea of human mortality. From a divine perspective, immortality is a central issue in resolving the conflict with death. One does not necessarily have to abandon their religious beliefs in the afterlife, but from an existential perspective, if a person gives too much attention to a divine perspective, the person lacks the attention necessary to discover what it means to be a human on a genuine physical planet, instead of an invisible reality. This idea of ignoring divine influence to focus on something more humanistic can become a problem for some. The problem is a consequence of conformity. “For the existentialist, being an individual in our mass society is an achievement rather than a starting point” (Flyn p 30). Individuality is one of the keys to understanding existentialism. Think about it, how can one think for themselves as an individual if they refuse or are incapable of thinking outside of what society has influenced them to accept? Sincerely, individuality is key to existentialism, but I would argue that it is also a critical quality of Americanism. It is a quality that is becoming compromised by an incompatible conformity today.
Works Cited
Flynn, Thomas. Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=430845.
Descendants of Grace Monergistic Agora 