396 becoming more human by becoming more godlikemortal existence within it. Our fi rst interest in this discovery is to ac-
knowledge it, to imprint it clearly on the mind every day of our lives, to
resist, on that account, the charms of the feel- good philosophies and
theologies, and to put natural science in its place.
Recall the three great benefi ts of this acknowledgement of the truth
about death and groundlessness. Th e fi rst benefi t is to rescue us from
self- deception about the most basic features of our circumstance. If we
excite a heroic will of re sis tance only by resorting to a lullaby, we have
to fear that the self- deception will outlive its supposed role, tainting
and disorienting the subsequent exercise of the will. Th e second benefi t
is to help arouse us from half- life to full consciousness of existence and
of time and thus to the possession of our highest good. By addressing
the argument ad terrorem against ourselves, we open ourselves to a
change of life— above all, to a change that gives us life itself. Th e third
benefi t is to guard against a danger that results from our openness to
the future. Our openness to the future threatens to estrange us from the
present. A misguided response to this estrangement is Prometheanism:
the cultivation of power, by the self- reliant individual, in the hope of
making himself into something other than the fl awed and dying creature
that he is. Another inadequate response is the romance of the ascent of
humanity: our vicarious sharing in the future triumphs of mankind.
Th ese two responses leave us deceived and unchanged. Fortunately,
they are no match for the anticipation of death experienced against the
backdrop of our groundlessness.
Th e consciousness of death saves us from losing ourselves in an end-
less present and protects us against the misrepre sen ta tion and perver-
sion of our humanity by triumphalism and hero worship. It guards
against idolatry in the form of self- deifi cation.
Th e ac know ledg ment of our groundlessness undermines any at-
tempt to give unconditional value to any par tic u lar or ga ni za tion of so-
ciety or of thought. It neutralizes idolatry in the form of any attempt to
accord absolute value to a historically contingent or ga ni za tion of society
and of thought. Our wrestling with nihilism becomes a device by which
we expunge from our beliefs the element of idolatrous superstition.
We can respond to our mortality, groundlessness, and insatiability
in ways helping us enter into the possession of life. One such response
is engagement in activities that command all of our passion. In those