Nietzsche’s Take On Religion

Nietzsche attacks religion for its stance against of healthy instinctive values and the intolerance and complacency that religion breeds.(Nietzsche 52) Nietzsche believed that the Christen morality prevented us from reaching our full potential as human beings(Janaway). Nietzsche most classical explanation for how this repressing of healthy values, such as passion and ambition occurred is the slave revolt. In this theory he states that the priestly classes of the ancient world invented an evaluative system for the downtrodden, according to which what their masters considered virtues, such as pride and strength are evil(Milgram 93). A result of this is this pervasive feeling of self guilt when our natural instincts provoke such feelings from within us, which has a negative impact on our mental health (Janaway).

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...

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...the other cheek or demand a tooth for a tooth, but what decision you come to wont be because you are following the instructions laid out before you word for word. It is because you will look through the bible and pick out the passages that support the beliefs you already hold(Sinnott-Armstrong).

Works Cited

Companion to Nietzsche, pages 180–222, Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge.

Sorensen, R., 2001. Vagueness and Contradiction. Clarendon Press,

Oxford.

29 Boswell Road,

Oxford, OX4 3HW. [e-mail] 166 Philosophical Investigations

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Companion to Nietzsche, pages 180–222, Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge.

Sorensen, R., 2001. Vagueness and Contradiction. Clarendon Press,

Oxford.

29 Boswell Road,

Oxford, OX4 3HW. [e-mail] 166 Philosophical Investigations

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.