For the basic functioning of an individual, certain criteria keep their ordeals in check. For the most orthodox of individuals, theism is a tradition. A theistic worldview offers sanctuary to their thoughts that are in pursuit of a higher meaning to existence. Furthermore, their faith in god can rid them of troubles which they have no control over. God is often put forth as a scapegoat if anyone doubts their inexplicable assumptions and morals. They remain content with what they receive. 

Those who reject a theistic worldview put themselves above the aforementioned accounting to the fact that they aren’t as gullible as them. However, their search for the higher truth doesn’t stop like the theists’ search stops at God. Their dissatisfaction with the status quo and general sentient curiosity pushes them in search for the rudimentary meaning in existence or the absence thereof. The people, who can’t install a scapegoat, like God, can’t calm themselves with the same. Consequently, this unrest causes a breaking point for some while others remain dissatisfied and resort to viewing the world with contempt. 

In an attempt to consolidate themselves and their mind against the so-called angst of human existence, they familiarize themselves with relevant literature and peers who hold similar views. While a group of people may just be doing so to dodge the mainstream and stand out, another group is genuinely sweating to break the bandwagon that invites societal control veiled by faith and promises of salvation. In their pursuit, they reach the very foundations of organized religions. The general population’s blind conformity stems from their vulnerability to and fear of exclusion from the society. 

The social man is grounded by his peers and the moral guidelines set by his ancestors. At the heart of these guidelines lies a fundamental flaw that is ever so often overlooked without a second thought. The basis of morality and its justifications fail at the most basic of levels. Although this has been a subject of keen speculation since ages, a concrete foundation of morality is still as inexplicable like the quantum nature of reality. However, it lacks the observational evidence that the latter is supported by. This mentality of man has spread across time like a plague, a plague fueled by ignorance and apathy, a plague that has wiped out anyone who would question the nature of objective reality and it has left none but a few survivors. 

These few survivors salvage whatever they can from their partially fabricated history and draw from their imposed laws a conclusion that, since the basis of morals is flawed and ill-defined, the reasons for moral values might as well be non-existent by their nature of being outside a layman’s logical plane of understanding. Consequently, the moral obligation everyone is supposed to follow makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. So, one doesn’t have the intrinsic need to tend to any responsibility and so no one has a definite obligation. Only when one is freed from the prison of principles and is left to roam the fields of possibilities, one would need no sanctuary for one’s thoughts. Such transcendental acceptance of existence would rid them of their problems that they consider to give their life 
meaning.

Aayush is high school student at St. Xavier’s College, Maitighar

 
• certain criteria
 
• functioning of individual
 
• keeps ordeal in checks