Hans Küng's Alternative to Nihilism

Abstract

In his book, Does God Exist?, Hans Küng proposes an alternative to nihilism, namely fundamental trust or "Yes to Reality". Through a detailed study of Küng's interpretation of nihilism and his alternative to nihilism, I discuss whether Küng can help people to find a way out in face of the challenge of nihilism, as predicted by Friedrich Nietzsche. I conclude that fundamental trust still cannot be a more convincing choice than nihilism for those people who do not believe that there is a fundamental identity, meaningfulness and value of reality, and for those who cannot experience the being of this uncertain reality, even if they venture out in trust. In my opinion, Küng is not very successful in convincing people that fundamental trust rather than nihilism is the right option for them.