The
most infamous line of Friedrich Nietzsche comes out of The Gay Science[1]
on the account of ‘The Madman,’ which reads, “God is dead. God remains dead.
And we have killed him.”[2]
The death of God comes about as the lack in belief in the deity. God, of
course, is associated with the religious realm, in that the deity is an
omnipotent being that has the power to create humankind and to guide man. By
diminishing the role of God in life, Nietzsche sees that life is still able to
continue, but the goals of humanity become altered. For Nietzsche, “God” means
the foundation of everything around us and the source of our ideals, tenets, as
well as our ends. The goals then become an emphasis on the perfectibility[3]
of man, in relation to each other. By vanishing God out of the human equation,
it is humans—through the concept of history and the sciences—that will enable
man to become his own God.[4] The
areas that religion dominated in the life of man previously, now shift (because
of the lack in belief) to emphasize history, science, utilitarianism, culture,
and eventually leads man into the commercial society. It is what is done with
the notions of a diminished God that will signify the successes or failures of
man. To have “killed” God, is not to have turned against God, but to have
outgrown him through man’s ability to create. For Nietzsche, God can never be
reintroduced (or reborn) in a society, that stresses human ingenuity.
The
account of the death of God begins by a man, in “The Madman,” entering the
vicinity where some of the populace are located, and crying out loudly, “I seek
God! I seek God!”[5]
The man enters holding a “lantern” that is supposed to be used to guide
individuals through the dark, but serves no use because it is already bright
outside. To the mere common reader, it simply legitimizes how mad the man is. However,
if looked at closely, Nietzsche characterizes the madman’s use of the lantern
as an allusion to the worship of God. He encounters a group of Atheists, who
recalls to them Nietzsche’s infamous line, “God is dead. God remains dead. And
we have killed him.”[6]
These are deep and controversial statements to make, but it is nonetheless expected
from a philosopher.[7]
The madman, for Nietzsche, is a form of a philosopher that has realized the implications
of God’s metaphysical death. The philosopher is only able to understand this,
by being a thinker and seeker of God. The audience he is trying to convey his
message to, are all non-believers in God. They mock and laugh at him, while the
madman continues on trying to persuade the graveness of what man has done. He
tells them, “How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?”[8] However,
is the death of God the fault of non-believers or is it the fault of those who misconstrued
the tenets of God? Or, is it the fault of every man?
To
figure out who exactly killed God, is to go back and to recall the lantern. The
madman/philosopher is seeking light (the study of philosophy, ethics, human
nature, and the existence of God) in the brightness of day. God, for religious
individuals, is a means to have life; to experience a rebirth and a way to be
guided in life. The brightness of the day can be envisioned as being akin to
God (since he is the creator of everything). With the development of
technology, and with the ability to harness light in lanterns, man has abandoned
their reliance on the natural light of God. The lantern now dictates how one lives.
Those who do not believe in God, make no fuss over adapting to technology and
the advancement of man’s prowess in harnessing nature. However, those who are
seekers of God, do, but as the madman enters the picture, he too is at fault
for giving himself in towards technology. Nietzsche blames both unbelievers and
God-seekers, in the death of God. With the death of God, man is able to perfect
himself and to create his own way of life.
The
modernity of the future and the life of man will no longer be dictated by a
higher power, but by man—by the civilizations that emerge. During the period,
that Nietzsche wrote The Gay Science,
revolutions were occurring around Europe, politically and scientifically. Science
will fuel a broad understanding of human civilization, and will introduce to
mankind the history of man. It will contradict the pinnacles of the Christian
religion, and push society to take advantage of the wonders and greatness of science
and history: “And whoever is born after us – for the sake of this deed he will
belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.”[9] In
a deeper meaning, the perception of life will no longer be limited to that of
the individual, but will be seen as an infinite progression of humans. The
progression will take place in the ability of man to create, thus rendering the
need of a God nonexistent. Creation will open up the opportunities of man to
explore the arts and the talents of each individual. It will herald the
transformation from being dependent (on God) to independent (from God).
With
the realization that man can live without God, it is highly unlikely that God
can ever be reintroduced in a society that will become so dependent on human
ingenuity to solve all its problems. Even with the transition of mankind, it does
not entail the end of God. This is subtly implied when the madman remarks, “I
have come too early…my time is not yet. This deed is still more distant from
them than the most distant stars and yet
they have done it themselves. What after all are these churches now if they
are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”[10] The
realization that man no longer needs God, cannot be limited to a single
incident in time. The event is taking shape, and will continue up to the last
man. As stated before, God has been the foundation of man up to the point of
transition, and will be the ends of it. Civilization may one day turn to
Atheism, and completely renounced God’s role on anything that is created by
man, but once every human is gone, all that will remain will be the creations
and skeletons of man, and nothing else.
[1] Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm.
The Gay Science. 1882. Print.
[2] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
[3] “The realization that the
natural man has the capacity to change; the idea of perfectibility. This
concept gives rise to the notion that man can become something different from
what they were at creation, meaning that through experiences and knowledge, man
has been able to change for the better good or bad as a whole (and the
individual).” Source: Paper Opportunity 2.
[4] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125: “Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy
of it?”
[5] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
[6] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
[7] Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The people see him (Zarathustra) as a
madman, when he begins saying, “God is dead.” He is a philosopher and begins
conveying to the people, the same arguments that the madman made in The Gay Science, with the exception,
that Zarathustra provides an account of: if not God, what should be the purpose
of man—which happens to be, the Overman.
[8] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
[9] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
[10] Nietzsche, The Gay Science,
Section 125.
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