Nietzsche: Exposing the Christianity Hoax
For thousands of years the Bible has represented the foundation for one of the largest religions in existence, Christianity. “The Book” affects millions of people’s lives. The creation of morals makes the biggest impacts on individuals and society. Morals are hinted at throughout “The Book”, but are clearly stated in Matthew’s gospel. These morals are written in a series called the Beatitudes. Through morals, laws are created and society is given guidelines, most people see this in a positive manner. Friederich Nietzsche, a philosopher from the late 1800’s, views religion as a cult made for weak minded simpletons who need something to carry them through life. Nietzsche is often viewed as an antichrist; in fact he even wrote “The Antichrist,” an essay that seems to be his boarding pass and a ticket to hell. But there is some merit in his satanic ideas about religion one need only to view them from faithless eyes. Nietzsche’s ideas dismiss those of Matthew and how religion is a con to suppress the strong and make the weak feel important.
Nietzsche sees religious people as weak people who hate the strong and independent. In essay one he calls all priests “the great haters of history…likewise the most ingenious haters. (p. 33)” They are not able to go out into the world and naturally live without supernatural excuses and reasons for both their failures and successes. They cannot account for their own actions. In order to stop their feelings of weakness they must convince others that they are right and to follow them, giving them acceptance to in group. (p. 34) Through convincing sermons Christianity began to grow.
This con of the weak people can be traced back to two words - good and bad. Before Christianity good and bad represented social status (p. 25) Nietzsche claims that the concept of good was originally a synonym for nobility. At the same time anyone who was poor or simple was referred to as bad. The words had no moral value and were not part of some “higher” judgment. It was priests that transformed these words so that good refers to the poor and lower class members of society, and the privileged are now seen as evil. This reversal of good and bad is seen in the Beatitudes. It is not the rich and powerful who are favored by God but the weak and poor.
In Nietzsche’s mind nothing ...
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...s are created. Unlike the weak and poor priest who must give sermons and use persuasion to gather followers, the “Super Man” unknowingly attracts followers through behavior and could care less if he is accepted by, let alone leading, a group.
Matthew’s gospel is a morally sound guideline to being the perfect Christian. Be kind to your neighbors. Help the poor. Be meek and poor for you will inherit the earth. Nietzsche would spit on these “virtues.” He believes that the gospel is the word of the weak and unwanted. The meek will only make a difference if they band together and start a resentiment, which is when the meek revolt and turn against the “noble” or strong. This is the only way that the poor can gain any power in society. In Nietzsche’s eyes religion was the ultimate con on the human race. A few weak men’s ideas spawned a worldwide movement to suppress the strong and noble. This movement will hinder the innate instinct to gain power and be the strongest util man realizes he controls his fate and religion is a fantasy.
First, I want to identify who Marx and Nietzsche are and their critiques on religion. Karl
According to him, the noble individuals who praise themselves and their actions, egoistic or egoistic, as good are defined as ‘good’. For Nietzsche, it is the feeling of superiority, powerfulness over the low class from where the concept of good originates. In contrast to the original morality, Nietzsche marks the modern morality as a product of Jewish radical reevaluation of values. Spilt off between the knights and the priests led to reevaluation; as per him, priests make the evilest enemy. Although physically weak, priests are more intelligent and have more say over the knights, and can do anything when it comes to power, virtue, revenge, pride. Comparing the Jews with the priest, Nietzsche marks the radical reevaluation when the Jews rejected the aristocratic definition of good and divided modern morality from the original
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
Friedrich Nietzsche was a brilliant and outspoken man who uses ideas of what he believe in what life is about. He did not believe in what is right and wrong because if who opposed the power. Nietzsche was against Democracy because how they depend on other people to make some different or change, while Nietzsche believe they should of just pick the ones that were gifted and talent to choose what to change. Nietzsche also does not believe in Aristocracy because how they depend on an individual person to create the rules or change those benefits for him. As you see Nietzsche did not like how they depend on one person to decide instead of each person to decide for himself for their own benefits.
The three essays that make up On The Genealogy of Morals each deal with a certain stage of cultural development of morality. In order to establish chronology, the second section should precede the first, as noted by Dennett (Darwin's Dangerous Idea, 1995) . Essay I deals with the origins of "good" and "bad" as pertaining to the master and slave moralities. Essay II delves into the origin of guilt and bad conscience, while Essay III offers a discussion of the "ascetic ideal." I will concern myself only with the second phase of morality (Essay I), as it encompasses important aspects of the other two, but I will later give a brief discussion of Essays II and III in light of the explanation of the very origin of morality that Nietzsche is out to disprove.
Nietzsche’s dramatis personae “…is different than the actor of this drama” (Science 241). The preparatory human being is one who sees the world as Nietzsche does, and so his characterization is Nietzsche, and people who he sees stick out from the rest of society. The preparatory human being is one that is fit for the transition that Nietzsche sees the world around him going through. This is the destruction of the belief in God. Nietzsche proposes that the belief has receded and questions how people will be able to cope with this (Science 181). Mentioned, also, by Nietzsche in The Gay Science is his view that monotheism stifles and directs the individual towards a normative sense of mora...
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.
In Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, he discusses morality and divides this concept into two parts: “master morality” and “slave morality.” To briefly summarize, master morality, which was usually followed by the nobility, or ruling class, emphasized individuality and being strong willed – essentially promoting the creation one’s own set of values. In contrast, slave morality stemmed from oppression by, and resentment towards, the ruling classes onto the lower. The idea of “herd mentality” may be related to “slave morality.” Slave morality and being a part of the “herd” promote the idea of conforming humanity into calculable human beings, which in turn serve to oppress the masses.
Nietzsche sees our past as replete with decadence and spiritual decay. Oftentimes the values that we blindly accept have a contemptible origin; such is the case with the foundations of good and bad. The definition of good was judged so by "the good" themselves, that is to say, the noble the powerful, high stationed and high minded, who felt and established themselves and their actions as good (Nietzsche 25-26). These words, coined by the nobility, are prevalent within our thoughts and did not arise from the actions of man; rather it arose with a direct connection to power and wealth. The value of good, bad, wealth, and poverty are deeply rooted in the core of civilization and therefore convey the advanced state of sickness in society by expressing a weakness of mind amongst the public.
Where Kant’s system is based on a set of principles or duties, Nietzsche’s system is based on virtue. Nietzsche is critical of Christianity in general and its evaluation of morality. In the reevaluation of values, he shows how the characteristics of morality in Christianity are more prohibitive of living virtuously than those of Ancient Greece, which include strength, confidence, sexuality, and creativity. In Christianity, those values are pity, shame, asexuality, and humility. The set of values of Ancient Greece is considered Master Morality and the values of deontology is considered to be Slave Morality. Master morality is a step in the right direction for morality but still not the
In 1887, two years before succumbing to utter madness, existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes his ethical polemic, On the Genealogy of Morals, in search of a man with the strength to evolve beyond humanity: But from time to time do ye grant me. one glimpse, grant me but one glimpse only, of something perfect, fully realized, happy, mighty, triumphant, of something that still gives cause for fear! A glimpse of a man that justifies the existence of man. for the sake of which one may hold fast to the belief in man! Nietzsche, 18.
“Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority[control of the masses].”(Zeitgeist 2007) In this essay, we will explore the different roots of religion and the plagiarism that Christianity and a number of different religions have committed.
When reading Nietzsche, we can pick up from him that he was very educated often better than most philosophers. Or so he thought. Although he had a very poor outlook on his culture and everyday society, he had very strong opinions when it came to humans and their actions. He made strong assumptions whether people agreed with him or not. An assumption such as, he believed most philosophers and researchers were not as educated as he was, which we pick up in his writings. Nietzsche’s main goal in his essays are to educate those on morality. First, Nietzsche believed that specific words and human actions have evolved over time to things they were never intended to become. Nietzsche
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 prophet Zarathustra descended from the mountains after ten years of isolation. He has descended to teach the masses about the overman, and the belief system that accompanies him. Nietzsche, through Zarathustra, is offering a new value system to replace Christianity. This value system can be referred to as ‘Zarathustraism’. A vital part to embracing this value system is the deconstruction of Christianity. Man has redefined Christianity to better suit personal desire, and it has begun to fail as a result. Zarathustraism will teach Man to live in the light of the Overman, free of the negativity Christianity caused.