Question:
...a famous quote, said Friedrich Nietzsche. What do you think of that statement? What does it mean? Is he right? And how does it apply to us today? Discuss.



And of course, an obligatory poll:

Choices:
I'm with Nietzsche.
Nietzsche is a bastard.
God is divine.
Cake tastes better than God does.
God is nothing like how we envision it.

 

I response to Finn620, I read four or five of his books and the wikipedia library, so who is better suited for the analysis of Nietzsche?

quote:

And Jesus didn't live for the world?

No, Jesus lived for an afterlife. He didn't live for the imaginary palace in the sky or any afterlife. His life was not a "I dont live for whats here, I live for the otherworld." Jesus was the ultimate nihilistic philosohper. Also, if you ever read Thus Spake Zarathustra, you will clearly see that Nietzsche is utterly opposed to the Christian story of an afterlife, like every religion has. Nietzsche was announcing both what you said and what I said... We are both right...

I was thinking that too. Especially since this is the only place they posted.

Also guys, stop referring to the poor guy as "the madman". He didn't lose his mind until after he wrote all of his well known works, and anyway...he didn't really go insane. He just had a serious nervous breakdown.

I swear that person took the name "godisholy" specifically for responding to this thread.

We were talking about a quote. People are explaining what they enterprite (sp) that quote to mean. Try reading a topic befor you post.

god is real no matter wat

look here people that think god is dead!GOD IS NOT DEAD...god will never die because if that was the case then we would never be here god is the most powerful thing or spirit he is one with jesus and the holy spirit u just need to ak him into youre life... if u think that god dies then u should know where youre going "hell" were you'll burn 44eva

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzsche

Scroll down to the part about the Overman. Nietzsche wasn't talking about a replacement for a higher power - he was just talking about polymaths, basically.

quote:

The Overman. This overman is better than Jesus because, instead of placing all his faith in an illusory world, lives for the world. He is also an artist or a poet, a dancer or a musician. The Overman is a better version of God. I'd rather have the Overman than God...at least with the Overman, there is some creativity that cisnt looked down upon.

And Jesus didn't live for the world? Read what he taught. I think what you meant was that in his book, there was no belief in a higher being and no one telling people that there was a place beyond this one. But what a lot of people overlook is that despite there being so much evil and wrongdoing in this world, God proclaims that He is everywhere and in everything. Where there is beauty, love, and peace, you can see God's hand in it. This is the physical part of God... looking at everything around you and realizing how complex and mysterious it is.
But in his quote, Nietzche was referring to the Western world at the time, meaning that many people were disregarding the BELIEF in a Christian God. This lead him to the conclusion that if there is no need for a Christian God, then there is certainly no need for the Christian morals that go with it. Even though he was an atheist himself, he worried that the morality of society was deteriorating because of the growing rejection of God.

That quote is really taken out of context. Read "The Gay Science" and look at the whole paragraph. It isn't God Is Dead Period, it's God Is Dead: but, blah blah blah blah.

What Nietzsche meant was simple. The madman that announced the death of God was also a prophet for the coming of nihilism. The madman was talking to the atheists who were killing God with their non-belief. As Nietzsche was opposed to the nihilist's ideals, for the most part, Nietzsche lamented the death of the Christian God. Yet, in Thus spoke Zarathustra, another one of his influential, though weird books, he creates a replacement for a God. The Overman. This overman is better than Jesus because, instead of placing all his faith in an illusory world, lives for the world. He is also an artist or a poet, a dancer or a musician. The Overman is a better version of God. I'd rather have the Overman than God...at least with the Overman, there is some creativity that cisnt looked down upon.

Read Brave New World By Aldous Huxley. It deals with a modern society that is rid of the need of a God, the implications of that, and what ultimately replaces God.

Nietzsche isn't saying God is literally dead. He's saying that God is dead to the world.

God is not Dead!

God dosent die.
God is always there.

The Question is do we Belive and love him and know he is there .

No one killed him hes just waiting for us to smarten up

*Heather*

Kate:

You do realize that Nietzsche wrote "The Gay Science" in the 1880s and that the rampant presence of sex and drugs in the media was not a factor then, right? Granted, people were using drugs and having sex, but those things (especially sex) were more looked down upon by society than they are now. Thus, that is not the kind of killing God that Nietzsche was talking about. He was basically saying that the need for a God was dying out, and that, because God was a human creation in the first place, humanity had the power to destroy him and could as soon as they no longer needed religion in their lives.

I officially understand how society killed God. We watched this moved in Health class ablut how the media influences sex and drugs. It showed the lyrics to the songs of what most people would call "clean" bands. They were awful! The media really could use to be cleaned up.

I think what Neets meant by that quote was that God is no longer a major controlling factor in our societies. That the majority of people now live their daily lives without considering Judgement Day, or more importantly what the Church would think. I don't know if I agree with this, though, as so many conflicts are still raging over God to this day. If God was really dead, the mid-East terrorists would have no basis to terrorize and the Da Vinci Code would have gone straight to rentals.

quote:

We ARE society by definition. Thanks for the intellectual redundancy redundancy.

That was the point. People seem to say "Yeah society killed GOD." Well what we should be saying is "WE killed GOD." I don't believe I saw anyone take responsiblity for it. So stop trying to be so smart until you know what you are talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by pandora03:
If society killed GOD it's because we helped them do it.

We ARE society by definition. Thanks for the intellectual redundancy redundancy.