Philosophy: Nietzsche and Heidegger

Nietzsche and Heidegger

In this assignment, I will discuss what I have learned to perceive is the relevance of Nietzsche and Heidegger for theorizing religion. I will place great emphasis on Nietzsche's concept of the "Death of God," and how this concept is a challenge to modernity and religious consciousness. With the rise of science and empiricism, Nietzsche argues that it is practically impossible for a modern person to realistically believe in a Christian conception of God. However, the morality of Christianity lingers in the background, and, while still influencing people, Nietzsche predicts that the Europe of his time was soon to see a nihilistic sickness. However, contrary to a superficial reading of Nietzsche, he was not endorsing nihilism, but rather diagnosing it within a societal context. As is exemplified by his concepts such as Ubermensch and "Will to Power," Nietzsche held an anti-nihilist attitude towards nihilism, and predicted the human ability to sublimate nihilism through a controlling of this Strife. After this, I will shift my attention to Heidegger. As I shall explain, Heidegger was post-Nietzsche, and thus wrote after the "Death of God." To explain Heidegger’s philosophy, I will summarize his working out of what are, in Heidegger's opinion, the fundamental questions of our times. Unlike Nietzsche, Heidegger does not delve on the "Death of God" because that has already happened, although, as I shall explain, the "Death of God" for Heidegger is more of an absence of God. Heidegger asserts that we live in a sort of in-between state where we cannot truly know God. Also, this has profound ontological and metaphysical implications, as Heidegger speaks lengthily on the difference between Being and being, a co...

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