Frederick Nietzsche

Frederick Nietzsche 's declaration that God is dead was not made in the literal sense . What he meant by this is that now in a world where everything is Westernized , the belief of the people in a Christian God is dead . Having said this , he goes on to say that this is the beginning of a new life for humanity . With no God , we are free to live our lives as authentic as possible . We have no safety nets to rely on , no God to call on in times of agony or desperation . This

means , according to Nietzsche , that we must set aside what tradition holds as important , and start living our own ideals . Thus we become a superman ( HYPERLINK "http /www .philosophypages .com /dy /un .tm " \l "uber " Uebermensch , an autonomous person living out his /her own ideals , as there are no absolute right or wrong ones (Kemrling

This led to the wide misunderstanding that there are people who are naturally superior . What Nietzsche is saying is that there are people who can be born elite . They can will themselves to become leaders . It is all on the individual 's will power

This is what the madman is telling everyone when he is seeking God , and he tells the people of his discovery that God is dead , and that we , the people , killed him . The madman now sees churches as large , glorified tombstones for God , since he is now dead . We are all killers of God due to our lack of commitment to the Christian faith (Nietzsche

This stems from Nietzsche 's opposition to what he called the Christian slave morality . He believed that we invented religion to control these supermen ' into submission . This is because we fear being overpowered by a superior foe (the supermen , so we want that person to become mediocre . This is where religion comes in , according to Nietzsche . With religion , we submit ourselves to a fictitious god , and therefore conquer the extraordinary men . This is because genuine autonomy means freedom from all external constraints , including religion . Through morality , it encumbers these supermen ' from achieveing all they want . This is slave morality , and the values this upholds is mitgefuhl (sympathy ) and milieden (charity . For people with this kind of morality , supermen are dangerous and should be contained . Nietzsche rebutts that these kinds of values are natural

If we do not turn our backs from tradition , we are living artificially We are merely actors then , playing parts we have been commissioned to do . We must live authentically , and the consequence of this is death . We must not fear it , for it is the natural conclusion to life . They are the two sides of the same coin . If we have lived authentically , according to our own means , we should not regret dying

References

Kemerling , G (2001 . Nietzsche : beyond morality . Retrieved March 28 2008 from http /www .philosophypages .com /hy /5v .htm

Nietzsche , F (1882 , 1887 . The Gay Science . Walter Kaufmann ed . New York : Vintage (1974 ) pp .181-82...