Soren Kierkegaard, born in the year 1813, referred to himself as a spectator in life, feeding off the work of others. Yearning to have a purpose, Soren filed his diary with claims about how his work would someday be important. Little did he know he would eventually be hailed as the first existentialist philosopher and one of the founding fathers of existentialism. Much to his surprise, he was a jack of all trades. He pursued career paths in both philosophy and theology, and also became quite the skilled poet, social critic and religious author who wrote extensively about Christian morality, ethics, and organized religion. Kierkegaard’s key ideas revolved around denying the Christian mindset of being able to learn about the world through simple and systematic observation. A variety of his other themes with which his writings revolved around were angst, faith as a passion, and the three stages of life’s way, each as important as the last. Soren is famously quoted, saying that “life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”