Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15, 1844 and died on August 25, 1900, was great 19th century German classical philologist, philosopher, and poet. He is known for his writings on critical texts on life and mortality, religion, philosophy, contemporary culture, and science, which displayed fondness for aphorism, metaphor, and irony. His writings remain substantial influential beyond and within philosophy, majorly in postmodernism, existentialism, and nihilism. One of his writing that “God is dead,” sparked a lot of debate in both circular and religious sectors.
The statement "God is dead" appears in a number of his works; for example, in “The Gay Science.” In my opinion, and as I infer from his writings, Fredrich was implying that, the recent advancement and developments in today’s science and technology, along with the increasing immorality and secularism in Europe and the entire world, indicates the nonexistence of the Christian God, which literally means that He is dead (Fields, Barber, and Riggs,1997). The Christian God was and had served as a symbol of basic virtues and values in the western countries for many years; therefore, the dawn on secularism suggested God’s death. Some commentators and people view Nietzsche Fredrich as an atheist, while others like, Kaufmann have suggestions that the statement reflected a deeper, subtle, and a sound understanding of God’s divinity.
In his perspectivism view, Fredrich claimed that God’s death would ultimately lead to the loosing of universal outlook on things, together with it binding sense of objective truth. People would instead keep hold of only their own fluid multiple, and diverse, perspectives. He give an alternative, that God’s death may lead perspectivism to nihilism, which is the belief that life is purposeless and that not a single thing possesses inherent importance. In his writing, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” he introduces the concept of creating a value. Some suggestions by people like Lampert, indicates that God’s death must or ought to be followed by a lengthy twilight of nihilism and piety.
Work Cited
Fields, Lanny, B., Barber, Russell, J. and Riggs, Cheryl, A. The Global Past Volume II: 1500 to the Present. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997. Print.
