Is Heidegger an Atheist?

Is Heidegger an atheist? This is a question that can be simplified by first defining atheism. Atheism can be defined as the lack of belief in a God, gods or a higher power. Depending on how one personally defines atheism determines whether Heidegger is an atheist or not. If one defines atheism as on a lack of belief in God then Heidegger is considered an atheist, but if one defines atheism as a belief in some sort of higher power then Heidegger is not an atheist. This is because in Letters on Humanism he states, “What is Being? It is it itself… “Being” that is not God and not a cosmic ground. Being is farther than all beings” and I think that what he means by this is that he does not believe in the God that most of our religions believe in now because he believes that God is something we fabricated in our minds. This is because a true God (or “Being” as he refers to it at this point in his writing) would be some thing that goes further than what “beings” (us) can grasp with our minds. Therefore, according to Heidegger if we seem understand the concept of God then the God we believe in is not real. However, he does believe in a higher power or “Being” as he refers to it, that we do not know about and don't understand.

Heidegger does not only look at the existence of a higher power from the point of view of a theist (I mean this somewhat loosely) but also from that of an atheist. He does this when he states that we do not yet know for sure if we are products of an accident like the big bang or products divine creation. He the follows up this statement by saying “With the existential determination of the essence of man, therefore, nothing is decided about the “existence of God” or his “non Being ” and I think that this statements that shows that he is not an atheist. This is because in this quote, Heidegger does not necessarily show any signs of atheism but he does show signs of agnosticism, which means that he has no belief for or against a God, gods, or a higher power.

While Heidegger does not believe in God, it does not necessarily mean that he is an atheist. Heidegger just takes a different approach to the way that he believes in a God, which he refers to as a “Being” (with a capital B) and I think that the statement that best summarizes his point of view is “By the assessment of something as value what is valued is admitted only as an object for man’s estimation”. As I mentioned before,

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