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Nietzsche's critiques of religion
What does nietzsche mean by god is dead essay
Nietzsche's critiques of religion
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Nietzsche wrote a piece called “God Is Dead”. Nietzsche wrote this piece based upon his view point of Christianity. Nietzsche rejected the Christian morality and believed that Christianity in Western Europe was heading into the wrong direction. “Christianity is Platonism for the people” was said by Nietzsche because, Plato believed that there was a better or pure world and could be accomplished by going back to the world we used to live. In another sense, Plato focused on a past life and ideas that came from that life to have a successful pure life. Nietzsche’s view of religion, he believed that by focusing on the scientism part of the religion, religion all together was moving from bad to worse. By saying “God Is Dead” which can be judged …show more content…
The church told them that they had original sin and that by focusing on God, Heaven, and one’s soul, the church can fix the sin inside one. This is Nietzsche’s theory called Metaphysical. The Metaphysical theory says that the church has one pay attention to their internal instead of having the followers focus on the life they live now. By focusing just on God, Heaven, and Soul, one is deemphasizing the importance of the religion itself. With the revaluation of values, Nietzsche focused on morality, more specifically, Master Morality and Slave Morality. Master Morality is when one is concerned with strength and competition, and achieving goals is an accomplishment. Slave Morality deals with concepts of good and evil with the Evil representing the Master morality. The slave morality lives within the master’s shadows and will reject what the master stands for, this morality will suffer from resentment also, both moralities can be found in the same person. In a person, the Master morality vision has gone beyond the concepts of good and evil and has looked into a deeper meaning in themselves, but the master morality is not an end
“Theology is the esoteric thought of the Church.” (WR 15) What is meant by this is that theology is a part of the Church that is very mysterious and confusing to most laymen. Rauschenbusch has introduced many new ideas into the theological point of view. Rauschenbusch tries to explain that the social gospel is here to help people pull more from theology than just jargon that they don’t understand. One of Rauschenbuch’s main points throughout his book A Theology for the Social Gospel is that man uses the thought of Adam being responsible for original sin and therefore everyone is born into sin. Jonathan Kozol, the author of Amazing Grace, went to the impoverished city of Mott Haven to observe the motivation of the citizens amidst a town where sin is around every street corner. He examined the meaning of life and the little opportunity the citizens of Mott Haven had to escape their unfortunate circumstances. Through Walter Rauschenbusch’s A Theology for the Social Gospel one can find the answers to the questions of sin and the heavy presence of sin. The excuse of using Adam as a reason to rid men of their responsibilities is one of the biggest mistakes theologians make, but Rauschenbusch has tried to set things straight by pointing out that those sinful behaviors are learned through your lifestyle and surroundings.
However, Nietzsche’s idea of the powerful forcing their will on common people resonates with me. It is something we see in our modern society, wealthy people seem to have a higher influence over the average American. Examples of powerful people controlling others are found in politics, economy, media, and religion. Common people are lead to think in certain ways that the powerful need them to. Nietzsche said that people will only be equal as long as they are equal in force and talent, people who have a higher social group are more influential in decisions because average people look to them for information. The thing I do not agree with Nietzsche on his view as Christianity as a weakness because religion is a main cause of people’s decision
The purpose of Friedrich Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morals (1887) is to answer the following questions, which he clearly lays out in the preface: "under what conditions did man devise these value judgments good and evil? And what value do they themselves possess? Have they hitherto hindered or furthered human prosperity? Are they a sign of distress, of impoverishment, of the degeneration of life? Or is there revealed in them, on the contrary, a plenitude, force, and will of life, its courage, certainty, future?" (17). These questions come about from Nietzsche's rejection of the Darwinian-Spencerian-utilitarian explanation of morality, characterized by his portrayal of the "English psychologist, " and serve as a framework in which he constructs the arguments in his book.
Fridreich Nietzsche writes in The Gay Science "God is dead....And we have killed him," (99, Existentialist Philosophy) referr...
Friedrich Nietzsche, a Russian philosopher who lived in the nineteenth century, was known for his extreme pessimistic attitude. He and other philosophers saw the world in a such a negative light that many claimed that it may be better to die than continue living. However, unlike other philosophers of his time, he argued that art makes life possible to live. More specifically, Nietzsche argued that art disguises the ugly reality of human existence and rather illustrates an ideal version of life, spreading hope for a better future.
Friedrich Nietzsche is an influential German Philosopher who is known for his writings, on Good and Evil, the end of religion in society, and the concept of “super man.” Nietzsche was born in 1844, in Röcken bei Lützen Germany. He published numerous works of philosophy, which includes Twilights of the Idols, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 1880’s Nietzsche developed points of his philosophy. One of his famous statements is that “God is dead” which is a rejection to the Christian faith. Others were his endorsement of self-perfection throughout creative drive and a will to power, which brought his concept “super-man) which is an individual who strives to exist beyond conventional categories of good and evil. Nietzsche made a major influence on
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals can be assessed in regards to the three essays that it is broken up into. Each essay derives the significance of our moral concepts by observing
The book Ecce Homo seems to be an account of Nietzsche establishing a validation of his whole being. This whole book is an opportunity for him to critique himself, and he finds himself more than superb. ."..I have been told how getting used to my writings spoils ones taste. One simply can no longer endure other books, least of all philosophical works" (719). This writing is his way of not becoming perpetually problematic. He wants to make very clear that he is the pivot point around which all change will come and that his goal is to have all things established and idolized ruined. "Whoever uncovers morality also uncovers the disvalue of all values that are and have been believed: he no longer sees anything venerable in the most venerated..." (790). The review of his various works is a way to make sure that the reader cannot accuse him of being something he is not and therefore test the reader's true understanding of his nature. His ideal reader would be one that was strong enough to understand the boldness of an immoralist.
The first reason for this would be because Nietzsche believes that Socrates and philosophy have killed art, and he also believes we do not need the truth because we have art and music. In “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” Nietzsche says that science is part of the “columbarium of concepts” (Pg. 150), this meaning simply that concepts kill, and since Nietzsche believes the truth is a concept, and then in turn he is saying the truth kills.
God may well be dead but Nietzsche’s assessment of the pitfalls of our new arbiter of value provides a staunch critique against which we must measure our morality. The question though remains as to whether we can ever accept a plurality of values within a given polity, whilst it may solve the philosophical problem of linking categories such as ‘Truth’ and ‘Purity’ can any aggregation of humans ever produce an agreement that is anything but slavish or self interested or vain or resigned or gloomily enthusiastic or an act of despair or each individually? God may well be dead but Nietzsche is right when he says that his shadow remains over us and, for the moment, there seems no way we can cast our own light on that shadow and overcome his legacy.
We have grown weary of man. Nietzsche wants something better, to believe in human ability once again. Nietzsche’s weariness is based almost entirely in the culmination of ressentiment, the dissolution of Nietzsche’s concept of morality and the prevailing priestly morality. Nietzsche wants to move beyond simple concepts of good and evil, abandon the assessment of individuals through ressentiment, and restore men to their former wonderful ability.
The first-rate admirable people follow a master morality emphasizing power, strength, egoism, and freedom. While slave morality focuses on weakness, submission, love, and sympathy. For Nietzsche, the Will to Power is the distinguished as the dominant principle of biological function, without the Will to Power abusing the weaknesses of everyone being equal, with that society cannot and will not develop. The Will to Power is also defined as the Will to Life.
This confirms Nietzsche's negative view of religion / Christianism. Nietzsche said that religion shouldn't How can religion not be an 'end-in-itself' for religious believers? A counter-argument to this would be to say that religion as an instrument is not a religion.
Nietzsche’s critique of religion has a lot of merit. To use an example from Nietzsche’s works, if you do not appreciate the dentist who rips out a sore tooth, why then would you follow a value system that kills all passion to prevent one from their stupidity(Nietzsche 51). While many of the values that Christianity condemns have the potential to be harmful,t many positive things may come from them. Ask the question, who does more good; the humble Mother Teressa serving soup to the poor or the greedy Bill Gates providing jobs for millions of people? The humanist values urged by Nietzsche offer a healthier lifestyle than those urged by Christianity. Take enmity for example. Whether it is witches in Salem or heretics in medieval times, in every age the church has tried to destroy its enemies. Immoralist, those who follow anti-Christian morals, recognize the advantage in keeping our adversaries around, and thus are more to...
Moral Theology is a branch of theology, the science of God and Devine things. It is also considered as the study of the ‘beginning and the end of a man’s moral life’ and essentially the analysis of how one should act. As a Roman Catholic life is marked by interior devotion to God and following the Ten Commandments. Theology, is understood to mean supernatural theology that is the science of God and Devine things, in as far as it based on supernatural Revelation. The focusing theme contains not only God in his essence, but also his actions, and his works of salvation and the guidance, which are led to God whom will be our supernatural end. Through our knowledge of all these truths is necessary for every man to understand the broadest outlines, and is acquired by Christian faith. Theology demands the knowledge won through faith, and as it deepens it expands and strengthens so that our faith can be better understood and defined by the reasons. An example of this a house is built to live in, a clock made to keep time. But what of the “end” to which we as human beings aspire? Thinking of this “end” not as an end point, but as completion as fullness.