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/ (atheism) % "It is a matter of          \
| persisting. At a certain point on his   |
| path the absurd                         |
|                                         |
| man is tempted. History is not lacking  |
| in either religions or prophets,        |
|                                         |
| even without gods. He is asked to leap. |
| All he can reply is that he             |
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| doesn't fully understand, that it is    |
| not obvious. Indeed, he does not want   |
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| to do anything but what he fully        |
| understands. He is assured that this is |
|                                         |
| the sin of pride, but he does not       |
| understand the notion of sin; that      |
|                                         |
| perhaps hell is in store, but he has    |
| not enough imagination to visualize     |
|                                         |
| that strange future; that he is losing  |
| immortal life, but that seems to        |
|                                         |
| him an idle consideration. An attempt   |
| is made to get him to admit his         |
|                                         |
| guilt. He feels innocent. To tell the   |
| truth, that is all he feels --          |
|                                         |
| his irreparable innocence. This is what |
| allows him everything. Hence,           |
|                                         |
| what he demands of himself is to live   |
| /solely/ with what he knows, to         |
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| accommodate himself with what is, and   |
| to bring in nothing that is not         |
|                                         |
| certain. He is told that nothing is.    |
| But this at least is certainty.         |
|                                         |
| And it is with this that he is          |
| concerned: he wants to find out if it   |
|                                         |
| is possible to live without /appeal/."  |
|                                         |
\ [Albert Camus, "An Absurd Reasoning"]   /
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