Nietzsche comment that “God is dead,” is an interesting one. By this, he implies that the decrease in importance placed on religious faith in Western society has caused, in turn, a decrease in the moral values of society. However, what he does not seem to take into account is that no moral values have been introduced to replace the old ones.
The statement “God is dead” comes up in a few of Nietzsche's works, the most famous being in The Gay Science. Furthermore, the statement is now among his most well-known comments. One the one hand, it is easy to see why some believe Nietzsche to be an atheist but, on the other, it is feasible that an atheist would not have such a strong opinion on this subject. According to Nietzsche, advances in contemporary science and the growing separation of European civilisation had, essentially, killed the Christian God, who had functioned as the foundation for sense and importance in the West for over ten centuries. The philosopher portrays, through poetic prose, the idea that Christianity used to provide a basis for moral behaviour in Europe. However, he argues, as the number of people assigned to this faith began to deteriorate, so did their moral standards.
Nietzsche’s statement, “God is dead,” does not signify that God has undergone an actual, physical death. In many ways, this seems obvious as, whatever your position on God, He is not considered to be a physical entity. Rather, Nietzsche puts forward that if a Christian culture begins to disbelieve the presence of a divine existence, the moral structure of such a culture will be destroyed. Nietzsche is not attempting to murder God as, he claims, society has previously done so. He is, however, looking to suggest a system for humankind to rebuild its structure in the void left by the annihilation of Christian ethics. Therefore, the death of God is a misleading comment; the death of religion appears to be straight forward and more appropriate.
Then again, the death of God might point past basic perspectivism to absolute nihilism. Nihilism is the conviction that nothing has any intrinsic purpose and that life does not have meaning. Nietzsche believes that the death of God has led to a nihilistic culture in the West. He claims that, without faith in God, people have no aims or reason for behaving well, or even for being alive at all. He addresses nihilism as a subjective problem, claiming that these difficulties in the contemporary world are ones that have worked their way into his consciousness. Also, he highlights both the menace of nihilism and the potentials it presents. According to him, it is only when nihilism is defeated that a society can gain a proper basis on which to flourish. He wanted to speed up its arrival so that he could, in turn, spur on its exit. Anti-nihilism is an interesting concept for Nietzsche to address. As with most philosophical problems, nihilism is not provable either way. However, he claims that he wishes to pass through this phase in order to come out of it again and into an improved society.
Although Nietzsche adamantly believes in traditional Christian values, and grieves his perceived deterioration of them, he fails to recognise that new values have replaced some of the older ones. Furthermore, the new moral values are, arguably, more relevant to modern society.
Nietzsche God Is Dead Critical Thinking Examples
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