The Reports of God's Death Are a Bit Premature
Arguing the death of God is a debate that will last until eternity. Regardless of exploration or religious zeal there are far too many human viewpoints leaning towards the idea of and the strong need for faith. Believing in God for some is as natural as walking upright and it would seem that through such unquestionable faith God would somehow still be alive. But perhaps He is only surviving with the help of life support.
For example, it would be difficult to tell a passionate Fundamentalist Christian that God was not alive in his or her heart. Therefore, Nietzche's claim of God's demise would fall on deaf ears, for he or she would, in a sense, be keeping God alive with
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And if doubt alone didn't kill Him, combine it with a feeling of failure and a broken heart and it's no wonder that he has passed on.
The question now is: what do we do about it? Because of this death of God the Idea, we must enter into a period of nihilism where we will believe in nothing and doubt everything. "Nihilism represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals -- because we must experience nihilism before we can find out what value these 'values' really had. -- We require, at some time, new values" (Kaufman 131). Since we are humans and by nature we need to have some form of religion in our lives, we will then begin to create a new religion, a religion of our own. This "new Religion" will be based upon our own interpretations about our meaning and our existence. We will draw our own conclusions and not rely on religion to simply do it for us. By virtue of having killed God, we will become our own gods! (Kaufman 126).
The implications this sudden death holds for us are vast. But what is at the forefront is the idea of rebuilding and starting over. It is not easy to start anything from scratch, and reinventing a new religion for the human race is much more complicated than apple pie. We must begin to have faith in ourselves as individuals, we must look inward and toward the earth. We cannot look solely to science for answers, for there
was able to die. However, unlike a regular mortal, Christians see his death as a symbol of
Friedrich Nietzsche’s own skepticism symbolized the secular changes in contemporary Western civilization, in which he details mankind’s break away from faith into a new rule of chaos. In Book 5 of The Gay Science, Nietzsche establishes that “God is dead”, meaning that modern Europe has abandoned religion in favor of rationality and science (Nietzsche 279). From this death, the birth of a ‘new’ infinite blossoms in which the world is open to an unlimited amount of interpretations that do not rely on the solid foundations of faith in religion or science. However, in contrast to the other philosophers of his age such as Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Nietzsche deviates from the omniscient determinism of history towards a
There is a difference in thinking God is gone, and in not wanting to continue believing in him and praying towards him. People can know God is gone and still continue believing that he will come back. This shows that Wiesel no longer cares if God does come back, on account of the his silence cannot be forgiven. This impacts the reader because they end up realizing just how painful the silence is. Readers with a God of their own, watching over them, know how important God is and how much they depend on Him, and it helps them understand what it would be like if their God had just disappeared into thin air with no warning.
First, the religious concept views death as the commencement of a new life (Campione, 2004). Next, the
The death of the pipel is related to the death of his faith in God.
Death is one of the most important topics that religions cope with. Since religion deals
until I asked about his family. He started to break down but stopped himself, he then firmly said his father after learning that they were to die said “I don't want to wait. I’ll run into the electric fence” (Wiesel, 33)
“God is dead” this is a quote that was said by John Proctor, a character in “The Crucible” when he was in court testifying that he was not the devil. John Proctor is a middle aged man who is an outcast and doesn't go to church. He had an affair with his wife Elizabeth and Abigail wants him all to herself and she'll do anything to get rid of Elizabeth. John has a bad reputation for not going to church, plowing on Sundays, and not having all of his kids baptised. John and I have a few character traits in common such as we are both outcast, independent, and loyal.
In a forever evolving universe, it is not uncommon for human beings to experience apprehension when it comes to the idea of change. While some are passionately working towards the future, others are struggling to grasp onto the remnants of the past. New generations are being born and with every new generation comes an increasingly advanced perspective of the world. Traditional ideals and ways of life are continuously expanding and becoming something that may be unrecognizable to some and unheard of to others. With this being said, however, there is one thing that will never be completely new: the concept of religion.
The question “Is God real?” has been speculated for years and years. It is one of the main questions that is still being asked in today’s world, with movies, music and media surrounding it. The popular movies that have recently been released such as “God’s Not Dead” and “Heaven is for Real,” are perfect examples of this, with millions going to see them, and supporting the assumption that there is a God and place called Heaven. Millions of people assert their faith of God on a daily basis by claiming to pray to him, and doing things in order to bring him glory; the Bible is a major component that people turn to in order to support their claim that God is real, and is still apart of our everyday life. However, there is a side that states God is not real and he will not return. Major arguments for this side would be through certain catastrophic events that occurred, such as the Boston bombings or the attack on 9/11. The nonbelievers state that if there was a God he would not put his people through that; and also the argument of evolution, and how man came to be. As for me, I believe that God is indeed real, because the stories of Jesus told through the Bible, the amount of people that claim to have first-hand experience of both God and heaven, how Moses obtained the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and how life events are interconnected to teach us lessons.
The definition of death is another issue paramount to this discussion. Robert Rakestraw, professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary in his article on this very subject
His lack of knowledge led him to his demise, because he possesses self-awareness, leads him to the action of free will which could have protected him from a defined fate.
One of the most ancient mystery yet unsolved is the question pertaining to death and the afterlife. This mystery is one of the fundamental studies in both field of philosophy and religion. Comparing those who believe in a god-existing religion against those who don’t, we often see many differences in the answers relating to death. In the contrary, the similar answers to theist and atheist are evident strongly in two great thinkers and their works. The focus will be on Socrates’ speech in the Apology by Plato setting in 399 BCE and De Rerum Natura by Titus Lucretius 300 years later.
It’s the twenty first century. Scientists have found evidence of water on Mars, they have successfully cloned human embryos, and everyday, they are getting closer to finding a cure for cancer. Still, in a world of groundbreaking facts and evidences, where the newest discovery leaves older ones out of commission, we fool ourselves into blindly putting faith on a series of chronicles conceived during the primitive age. Religion probably started out as a result of mankind trying to explain the physical world, but then became a tool to control and oppress, a reason for bloodshed and hate. While religion may have been of great help in
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” (Gay Science, 126) This harsh statement remains among Friedrich Nietzsche’s most powerful and disturbing quotes, spoken by a proclaimed Madman to a crowd of disbelievers. After making this claim, the Madman becomes horrified by his audience’s ignorance, noting that “This tremendous event is still on its way.” This has an effect of suspending the Madman’s message in time, expanding its audience infinitely, for the event of God’s death could still be on its way. Therefore, nearly 150 years after these words were written, we must ask ourselves, does God remain dead, and has our modern society killed him? This is a haunting and disturbing question, but in many ways our society does resemble Nietzsche’s masses. However, it also resembles the Madman himself, due to its inherent individualism.