Introduction and Section One
Friedrich Nietzsche’s renowned words, “God is dead,” introduce several important ideas of this philosopher. It is not a literal death he is describing, but the death of an idea and tradition. For example, in the first section of the excerpt, he describes Christian religion as “a piece of antiquity out of distant ages past,” and later wonders, “Can one believe that things of this sort are still believed in?” (110). This section of the writing calls into question the idea that a modern society, with all its new knowledge and discoveries, can still invest itself so heavily in religious belief as a way to explain what is going on in the world. Nietzsche specifically calls into question the beliefs and traditions of Christian religion.
Section Two
In the second section, Nietzsche describes the feelings about and possible effects of the death of God, which could be more accurately described as the Christian religion being removed from European culture. He describes the idea “that belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable” as an “event” and a “spectacle” (110). The point of this longer section appears to be to refute the idea that when belief in the Christian God is “undermined” by modern thought, scientific discovery, and so forth, that the effects will be bad for European society (110). He believes that some people will see this event as a dangerous event that could negatively affect the “entire European morality” because for millennia, society has relied on religion and the guidance of religious leaders to understand the world and to make moral choices (111).
However, Nietzsche believes that turning to secular life and away from religion will have benefits for humanity. He writes that the “consequences for us, are, conversely from what one could expect, in no way sad and darkening but, rather, like a new, hard to describe kind of light, happiness, alleviation, encouragement, dawn” (111). Using a metaphor of a sea, he describes a future for humanity in which the “daring venture of knowledge is again permitted” on the “open sea” that represents progress, knowledge, exploration, and freedom.
