philechat

I would suppose atheism and some forms of Paganism to be more conducive to a tragic worldview than say Christianity and Judaism, because of the nature of atheistic beliefs. Tragic philosophy comes from the rejection of ultimate justice and the knowledge that nature does not always operate on an ordered principle, especially the principles that are based on human morality.

In the Judeo-Christian worldview all justice would be reinforced and all wrongs be righted by God, if not in this life, then in the afterlife. Such a worldview must lead to a firm belief in the "happy ending" that is allocated to the believers, leaving a tragic worldview nowhere to breathe upon.

Tragic philosophies require an "amoral universe" to florish in, therefore leaving only humans to redeem the problems of justice. It shows human suffering without a "right answer", and the gods (the force of nature) as capricious and indifferent to human welfare. The Greek gods in this sense personifies a mixture of good and evil, not always sympathetic to humans and not always reliable. Atheism, similarly, forces the concept of justice to rest solely on the shoulders of humanity.

cydonia

well, people in religions definitely do have the option of feeling good about life because their faith puts everything into a tiny box, hitler will go to hell, all bad people who get away from the law will meet justice, i will be rewarded for my suffering, etc.

Might even give a sense of purpose to their lives.

This of course has nothing to do with whether or not they are right.

philechat

I also like to add that one feature of the tragedies has been its ability to affirm both sides (or multiple sides) of a given conflict. That is, the tragedies recognize that humans are not all-good or all-evil, but the combinations of both. The different sides could all have a reasonable justification of their behaviors, which cannot be "objectively measured" by a godhead.

Such a principle has been the foundation of Greek tragedies, and is what made them aesthetically and intellectually appealing even in our time. A tragic worldview is also found in poets such as Shakespeare and Keats, who affirm the sporadic workings of the fates and the human sentiment.

Too much moral earnestness and we lost such a balanced perspective on life--a problem I think that is inherent in the Christian worldview.