Although, existentialists do not believe that we have essence to determine our actions, but instead they believed that humans were made who they were through their actions. The existentialists say that free will is a more of a curse. The central virtue in existentialism is authenticity. It means to remain true to you and your character, and not acting like other people. To have no authenticity is bad faith. Someone who is considered acting in bad faith is someone that is controlled and shaped by someone else. Rather than, being in control of themselves and responsible for one self. This shows hot the terms are related to freedom. One bad act of faith can take away freedom. Freedom is then opened up by authenticity. Another main word that is important to the human condition is ambiguity. We are beings that hang between god and animal.
We do not have complete power our lives. Our past plays a huge role in our lives. So to say we have no past would be bad faith. Nevertheless, it would also be bad faith to think that you cannot pull away from your past. The same applies if someone was born into it. Being responsible for our own decisions and values is called freedom. A famous existentialist said this, “existence precedes essence”, and it means that essential nature is not something we are born