Is God dead?

Chaos. Order. Beauty. Absurdity.

When one considers the many clubs on Fairfield’s campus, these profound subject matters are not quite what normally come to mind.

During the first meeting of the Philosophy Academy, which was held last Sunday night, these were only a few of the topics regarded during the grave discussion entitled, “Did Friedrich Nietzsche Kill God?”

Nietzsche is a philosopher whose work challenges the existence of God and the meaning of humanity. Church, science, order and intelligent design were all factors considered while reading Nietzsche’s texts during the Academy’s meeting.

Even during this serious and at times morbid 90-minute discussion, upbeat laughter was present.

The seven members of the group not only voiced their own ideas about the purpose and meaning of selected readings from Nietzsche’s “The Gay Science,” but they also encouraged one another to formulate and word their ideas in greater detail.

“Do you honestly feel like you killed God when you read this?” asked Jon Ruseski ’07. “Do you feel like a murderer?”

Students discussed their own ideas and integrated other philosophers’ works. The three pieces “New Struggles,” “Let us be on our Guard” and “The Madman” were compared to Plato’s “Cave.”

“He has a very compelling voice,” said Ruseski. “He makes me want to agree with what he is saying.”

Matt Ryder ’07, the Academy’s president, created the club in order to “offer a new platform for discussion.”

Ryder is actually the only member who is a philosophy major, although Ruseki plans to declare philosophy as his minor soon. Other students in attendance were attracted to the meeting by the fact that it offered a forum to discuss an interesting subject matter in an academic setting.

Rob Grazynski ’07 was happy to see that there was a group forming where he could “get to talk about something that makes a difference or matters.”

The Philosophy Academy plans to hold more discussions, watch films, go on field trips, compile a philosophy journal for the entire campus and create a medium for philosophical discussions.