system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why did Kierkegaard oppose the stoics?
gpt
I cannot recall direct passages where Kierkegaard engages with the Stoics, but having studied both it makes sense that he would oppose them. The Stoics believe that the universe is run by a purely rational God and that all universal events are manifestations of God’s rational will. The world itself is thus perfectly rational, and religious piety can be achieved through studying and affirming the world as it is. Kierkegaard believes, on the other hand, that if the universe is ultimately rational then any divine experience will occur outside of the universe and must transcend the rational and the universal. God cannot be understood rationally by human reason. Religion begins with a leap from reason, a leap of faith. Only such a leap does justice to the difference between humanity and God, between the world and the divine. The stoics can be said to anthropomorphize God by arguing that the human intellect is capable of understanding the divine and living wholly in accordance with it. For Kierkegaard, due to our sinful nature, such a life is impossible. We live fallen from the divine unto death where, only via the grace of God, we might be saved. Such salvation is never something we could rationally comprehend.