Eighth Note to “Prison Notebooks”

It all boils down to “The Problem of God” in philosophy and religion. To borrow from Camus yet again:

“Knowing whether or not man is free doesn’t interest me. I can experience only my own freedom. As to it, I can have no general notions, but merely a few clear insights. The problem of ‘freedom as such’ has no meaning. For it is linked in quite a different way with the problem of God. Knowing whether or not man is free involves knowing whether he can have a master. The absurdity peculiar to this problem comes from the fact that the very notion that makes the problem of freedom possible also takes away all its meaning. For in the presence of God there is less a problem of freedom than a problem of evil. You know the alternative: either we are not free and God the all-powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible but God is not all-powerful. All the scholastic subtleties have neither added anything to nor subtracted anything from the acuteness of this paradox.”

It follows that all of philosophy and religion and thus all the world and the universe is reduced to an absurdity. Either God’s hands are tied. Or God is the creator of evil. We are therefore left with the absurdity of the world scene. To conclude: “This absurd, godless world is, then, peopled with men who think clearly and have ceased to hope. And I have not yet spoken of the most absurd character, who is the creator.”