Kierkegaard writes of a faith that is not limited by self-interest or good works. In Deadly Illness, the author, Anti-Climacus (another Kierkegaard pseudonym) argues that the religious life is the only truly satisfying life. From his perspective, the prospects and rewards of the other two ways of life appear bleak. Anyone who lives for pleasure or duty is either too frivolous or too serious. A vague sense of anxiety, guilt or dissatisfaction haunts them. They may not be aware of it, but they are desperate. The more thoughtful among them progress towards an ever-increasing awareness of their desperate condition. Compare aesthetic, ethical and religious life. Aesthetic life promises us a series of temporary relief from the consciousness of despair. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, pleasures pale in comparison to the onslaught of experience. With repetition they lose intensity and interest. The allure of pleasure itself evaporates. The esthete fears boredom as much as pain, and boredom slowly descends as memory and self-awareness extend further into the past and anticipate an increasingly repetitive and limited future. The esthete is incapable of commitment and therefore never becomes a Self. In his terms, becoming Yourself means having a direct relationship with God, ceasing to be double-minded or self-deceiving. The important thing is not right or wrong, but interesting or boring. An esthete cultivates distance and irony, and ultimately distances himself so far from ordinary reality that he becomes, in Anti-Climacus' vision, an imaginary self. The Christian faith cannot be thought of with ideas belonging to philosophy, because Christianity is paradoxical and embraces the absurd. Anti-Climacus believes that only a life lived in eternity is eternally worth living. Eternal life is the reward of the Christian faith. However, to reach this state, we must believe the dogmas of the Christian religion without the support of human reason. We must simply throw ourselves into the arms of God, a Being whose behavior and thoughts are eternally incomprehensible to us. Nothing stops individuals from spending most of their lives cultivating what is “interesting” or “ethical.” For example, with enough money, you can spend years appreciating and collecting art, traveling the world, and seeking aesthetic delights. This could be enough to sustain a person to the grave. Only imagination can produce the variety of effects necessary to maintain aesthetic interest. The body's capacity for pleasure is soon exhausted and must be increased by thought to maintain variety. Others grow old under the moral law or die in its service. Such people speak a language of good and evil, right and wrong. The moral law is absolute. God, if he exists, simply supports him. Anti-Climacus approves of those who live in simple faith, supposedly in touch with something beyond pleasure, morality and all understanding. This is an absolutely transcendent being, a God who transcends even ethics. However, a person who lives within the limits of moral rules can never have faith in a God who calls us from beyond good and evil. Religion appears to the ethical consciousness as a superstition with, at best, a moral interpretation. When religion supports ethics, it is good, but when it goes against ethics, then we should discard it. The ethical person disapproves of stories such as God betting with the devil to test a man's faith (Job) or commanding someone to sacrifice a child (Abraham). The ethical person takes away the “terrible” from God and puts.