Nietzsche's Views On God And Religion

Nietzsche was a revolutionary author and philosopher who has had a tremendous impact on German culture up through the twentieth century and even today. Nietzsche's views were very unlike the popular and conventional beliefs and practices of his time and nearly all of his published works were, and still are, rather controversial, especially in On the Genealogy of Morals. His philosophies are more than just controversial and unconventional viewpoints, however; they are absolutely extreme and dangerous if taken out of context or misinterpreted. After Nietzsche's death it took very little for his sister to make some slight alterations to his works to go along with Nazi ideology.

     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

Nietzsche is widely known as a critic of religion. In fact, he talks in depth about morality in regards to religion in his essays about the genealogy of morals. But the problem is not within religion itself or within morals. The problem is involved in the combination of the two to create society’s understanding of morality through a very religious lens. In fact, Nietzsche has criticism for almost any set of morals constructed by a group of individuals and meant to be applied to society as a whole. True morality, according to Nietzsche, requires a separation from these group dynamic views of morality- or at least a sincere look into where they originated and why they persist- and a movement towards a more introverted, and intrinsically personalized understanding of what morals mean in spite of the fact that “the normative force to which every member of society is exposed, in the form of obligations, codes of behavior, and other moral rules and guidelines, is disproportionally high” (Korfmacher 6).

Friedrich Nietzsche, a prominent German philosopher in the 19th century is one of the most well-read philosophers of the past two-centuries. His ideas regarding morality and nature continue to be discussed and debated to this day among scholars of all beliefs.

The question of what may result from the fostering of critical, individual thought may have never even risen let alone remain unanswered if not for the consideration of some of the world’s greatest minds. Rigorously questioning the objectivity and truth of values whilst preserving a focus on the impacts of religion and morality on contemporary culture, Friedrich Nietzsche was, and remains to be, one of the most notably influential figures within the domain of 19th century philosophy. Upon viewing a number of citizens who were adopting a pessimistic and distrustful standpoint against the societal values of the time, Nietzsche came to the belief that the system of morals which had been lived by were no longer resonating with the maturing populace and that God was effectively useless; it is for this reason that Nietzsche announces the “Death of God”. Though a particular brand of nihilist may have viewed this passing as a detriment to the social cohesion of the populace due to an absence of any universal, absolute values - once attributed to God - Nietzsche proposed that this was not necessarily the case. Instead,

In my opinion, some of the essential idea in Nietzsche’s “beyond good and evil” is his search for the truth. He believed everyone had the ability to explore truth in their own specific way. In Nietzsche’s “beyond good and evil” he also believes that self – preservation is not the main ambition of human beings but the fundamental creative force that motivates all creations is the “will to power”(122). Furthermore, Friedrich Nietzsche did not believe in the existence of God, to him, God was dead. God plays no vital role in our culture- except as a protector of the slaves morality, including the idea of equal worth of all persons (122).

Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the greatest writers and psychologist amongst all the philosophers – scathing, funny, profound, sad, and yet ultimately beautiful and inspiring. He had a very astute understanding of human nature, and thus realized that most humans lived by myths that they believed to be true (very Socratic). His fame has significantly contributed to the popularity of postmodern

Friedrich Nietzche was born in Rocken. He spent much of his time alone, reading the Bible. Nietzsche’s father died in 1849. The young man withdrew deeper into religion.

I showed hopefully that Nietzsche was trying to show that the church no longer dominates with its dogma morality teachings. I clearly showed that the God concept had been around for thousands of years and most people believed in the church and God. I also showed how the church dominated the world for seventeen hundred years before Nietzsche wrote the Gay Science. I gave this information about the Church and the God concept to show that when Nietzsche wrote his famous words God is dead he was not literally saying God was dead, but that the concept of God believing in him for moral teachings is dead, are is no longer the only way to moral teachings. Nietzsche was brilliant in what he wrote he even wrote that the murder’s are human beings we

Nietzsche lived his life as a man critical of nearly everything in his life, provided that in influenced morality. Religion influenced people who, in his eyes, could do greater if their ideals weren’t held back by their preconceived ideas of morality. He frequently attacked philosophies that disagreed with him, claiming that they stood in the way of the benefit of mankind. His belief of abandoning preconceived notions of a code of morality is his own philosophy, Nihilism. Everything Nietzsche worked on became Nihilism. It is a shame that Nietzsche fell out of contemporary view because of the edits made by his sister that caused people to associate him with the hateful views of nazism and

To answer to question if Nietzsche would know really what is “god” were analyzed all 197 incidences of the term isolated or in derivation-combination in The AntiChrist. [FNTAC – F. Nietzsche. The AntiChrist. Translator: H. L. Mencken. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Project Gutenberg EBook #19322.]

Nietzsche expresses his views about society which has neglected their religious norms. The world who had been depended on the rule of God which gave meaning to their lives are now been forgotten. The Death of God is not only because of their unawareness about their religion but it is the feeling of their own strengths which creates expectations for achieving power of becoming successful. God is not people’s inspiration anymore to follow the rules which creates difference between right and wrong. They implement and change the rules by their own will. The idea of God has secured their thinking about the world. It has been given reasons to every immoral behaviour to justify their needs. Nietzsche sees the Death of a God as both a great danger

The Nazi ideology did not just come out of nowhere. They give credit to the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who was a peaceful nonbeliever in the overall ideology of religion. He thought that religion was not good, such as Christianity and Judaism equally. So why did the Nazi’s credit Nietzsche with the anti-Semitic views that their party valued? This was the common myth that Nietzsche’s philosophy gave the Nazi party their views about the Jews. Evidence shows that Nietzsche was actually not anti-Semitic at all and thought very highly of the Jews. It was people like his sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, and his friend, Richard Wagner, who tried to support German Nationalism and agree with their ways. Looking back into Nietzsche’s upbringings and his works before he had a breakdown, you could see that what he believed in was the opposite of what the Nazi’s

In this term paper I would like to discuss a brief history of Nietzsche’s life, how he developed his criticisms, a brief examination of some of his criticisms and misconceptions that are held by the

Nietzsche was really upset with the Apostle Paul, whom he believed played a vital role in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He saw the disbelief of Paul and the other disciples as a way for them to invent a new doctrine that they called Christianity. Nietzsche was concerned with happiness as he knew it to be on Earth. Maybe this all stems back to his childhood trauma. Either way, Nietzsche never really presents any kind of evidence to substantiate his own claims.