Moby Dick An Existentialist God
Submitted by Norakant on Wed, 2007-12-26 17:02.Moby Dick was in Ahab's mind and therefore by extension according to new criticism a direct belief of Herman Melville an evil uncaring God. And, therefore,Ahab had to destroy him. Article is well written.
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Interesting... reflects my views of monotheism and theodicy somewhat. Perhaps Melville's project is something that atheists of today are continuing, trying to promote reason, humanism and independent thought rather than what they perceive as being a naive belief in an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent supreme being.
Really I don't get the drift of athiesm deifying physical matter and implying a submission to matter from other matter on the premise that one matter over the other matter is a tool to improve civilization. Christianity single handedly did away with human sacrifice , etc. etc.
As regards projects I doubt if Melville had a preconceived notion of the full impact of Moby Dick. But since he was a Christian and a from deep reading a rather severe Christian, I don't see how you can spin off atheism at the foot of Melville! What I perceive is his deifying a creature because of its monstrous strength and blatant disregard for his part as Captain as being the incarnation of an evil god or Satan.
Ah - Satan, the ages old way theists try to do away with theodicy. Free Will and Evil, neither really a solution but good old window blinds to shut when reasons knocks on the door. I thought we were through that stage a long time ago.
I don't consider a possible god as particularly caring or good, rather negligent, self-obsessed and in the worst case evil. From that angle, the Great Evil Whale, could easily be an agnostic's view of god as remote and irrelevant and not a source of salvation, an illusion and religious obsession that needs to be destroyed for mankind to face reality.
Atheism comes in many flavors, and only "hard" atheism defies the existence of god(s), "soft" atheism emphasizes the unimportance or irrelevance of a possible god, and it's an interpretation that could very well apply here.
If we stay neutral, that is, if we put aside our current situations of mass confusion as to defying God to save us by attacking one of his or whom we perceive as his,isn't that what the Jews did to Christ?, but if we stay to the topic at hand, Moby Dick, the fascination with the obsession is what brought about Ahab's demise. He could have save himself.