I am standing on the platform of the tram and I am entirely uncertain as to my place in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even approximately could I state what claims I might justifiably advance in any direction. I am quite unable to defend the fact that I am standing on this platform, holding this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, and that people are getting out of the tram’s way or walking along quietly or pausing in front of the shop windows. Not that anyone asks me to, but that is immaterial.

Kafka is experiencing an existential disconnect,  the acute realization that you are partaking in an event of which you don’t why or where it originated or where it is going in terms of its purpose or destination as well as your own role in all of this. My take on this is that we might encounter such a disconnect when we take a step back from the immediacy of our daily lives and try to place them within the larger reality of the world we live in.

What is the distinction, and how do we run into it? I think the distinction is a function of contrasting the comings and goings of our daily lives as defined by  our  present and our past against the cosmic spectacle we appear to be immersed in – given that we are an intricate part of it – but unable to articulate the significance of this in any meaningful way.

More specifically, when you look at all of  human history and the types of activities that have preoccupied our species since the beginning of time – including the trail of war and other forms of mindless savagery that has been left behind as we have proved and continue to prove to be our own worst enemy – you have to wonder what this human saga is all about, as when you think about this for a minute the entire human effort as a whole makes absolutely no sense at all.

Now something started all this, and our sciences have told us as much:  the cosmos exploded, the earth cooled, the slimy bottom spawned, life evolved and here we are. But, to what avail?  I think that is a reasonable question, and it should be staring us in the face all the time, yet we seem to go on as if  none of this is of any consequence even if we did know the answer.

I think that way down deep this is an issue for all of us, and is subsumed in the human psyche, but that only some of us are  willing to confront, or – for that matter – are able to experience as an existential issue at some level or another and that, yes, continues to stare us directly in the face all the time.

Take religious beliefs for instance. Examining a religious belief is like peeling an onion: after stripping layer after layer there is absolutely nothing at their core. Although some folks simply claim that they “know” that such beliefs are absolutely true – e.g., that a god exists – we can do little but take their word for it as they are unable to clarify what they mean by this assumption.

Beliefs in the existence of deities and other kinds of super-natural beings continue to show themselves to be a seemingly endless source of human tragedy. While they might in principle be no more than nonsensical and hence harmless beliefs, it is at the same time the sickly smell of centuries of savagery and senseless slaughter of thousands of people in the name of such beliefs – and primarily in the competition between such beliefs – when they become weaponized and a major cause of death and destruction on our world, from our distant past to the present moment.

One might claim that this kind of action has nothing to do with the religious beliefs themselves – and that they are misused when wielded as weapons of murder and destruction. No – it is precisely the unsubstantiated and irrational nature of these beliefs that allows them to be used in this manner. When you think you have the almighty creator on your side – all your actions are justified; you cannot be wrong!

Until we shake off the influence of these irrational beliefs, people will continue to be murdered for them.