Jacques Derrida On 'Atheism' and 'Belief'

2011-12-15 3

Here, at the 2002 Toronto 'Other Testaments' conference, Derrida responds in audio format to a question about his supposed atheism... 'paradoxically,' he states, the 'true believer experiences atheism' because the object of prayer - God - is 'beyond' the usual metaphysical notions of 'being' (e.g., presence, essence, ouisa) - thus, to believe in that which by definition is 'beyond being' implies believing *as* an atheist... claiming that one is solely a 'believer' or an 'atheist,' is deemed 'ridiculous' - binary oppositions of this sort engage in a near constant reversibility... within this 'atheism' of the 'believer,' true faith appears (a postmodern rendering of Kierkegaard)...

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