Nietzsche

Many existentialist philosophers find their way into discussing religion in their writings. Philosophers speak about religion, because it is a subject that has the most affect on people. The affect is has is large because, many people including philosophers have attempted to shed light into such an abstract subject. Faith has always been a thing highly questioned by the masses. Although many existentialists write to bring a more positive prospective on religion, Friedrich Nietzsche does not do so. Friedrich Nietzsche born in 1844 in Germany was a severe critic of Christianity. His views on Christianity were made evident in his middle to later writings, especially that of The Gay Science. Nietzsche had many dislikes in Christianity. The subjects of Nietzsche’s dislikes will be Nietzsche’s “God is dead” expression, Christianity: the slave religion, and the lack of “Will to Power”.

One of Nietzsche’s most famous quotes lies in the statements below:

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its su

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n? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. He believed it to be the fundamental causal power in the world: the driving force of all natural phenomena and the dynamic to which all other causal powers can be reduced.

Since most in the European west were brought up believing that values come from belief in a higher power, in a higher order, the recognition that God is dead will not only cause him to lose faith in Christian values--compassion, charity, respect for moral laws--it will cause a loss of faith in all values. They will never be able to live up to any potential, because they live with the fear of God in their hearts. This in turn leads me to my next point of discussion. They essentially long for death, so they can leave the misery of the life. Competing wills and the efforts to overcome one's environment is not evil. And disbelief in all values will result in the sense of purposelessness and emptiness in existence itself.

When God is dead, we lack something to hold on to in life, and all absolutes disappear from human life, if God is dead. This same God however, before becoming dead in men's hearts and minds, had provided the foundation of a "Christian-moral" defining and uniting approach to life as a shared cultural set of belief fully within which people live their lives. Contrarily, it is a part of existence to be embraced, which signifies healthy

expression of natural order.

If God is dead, then why the whole free world is still dependent on the whole religion of Christianity. Nietzsche seems to be suggesting that the acceptance of the Death of God will also result in the ending of accepted standards of morality and of purpose. Creatures affirm instinct in exerting power and dominance, and the suffering is born of conflict between. Instead of living while they are alive, they are waiting until they are dead to do so.

Approximate Word count = 1263
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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