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Is God Dead?
Last time, we began to unpack Friedrich Nietzsche’s “God is dead” philosophy by looking at his assertion that there is no objective (absolute) truth or moral values, and that could only happen with the death of God and the abandonment of Christian values. But there is more to the story than that.
Nietzsche believed that Christianity, at its base, was a religion of and for the masses—the common folk masses, that is. Society, he argued, is made up of two classes: masters and slaves. Much to his frustration, Christianity was the religion for the slaves of society and was structured for their benefit, even to the pain of the master class. Nietzschean scholar Alistar Kee explains, “Nietzsche characterizes Christianity as the religion of a decadent chosen people, chosen by a decadent God.” Since the Western world philosophically runs on a Christian presupposition, Christianity reflects and promotes the values of those “chosen people” in opposition to the master class. Understanding that Nietzsche saw himself, of course, as a leading member of the master class sets the tempo and tone of his philosophical system, designed to replace the God of Christianity and secure rule for his master class of society.
Since Nietzsche accuses Christianity of having brought about an impoverished life by preventing mankind from rising above their animal ancestors, the entire system must be destroyed, starting with the death of God. In Nietzsche’s mind, this will bring about a reevaluation of all moral values, beginning with the assertion that absolute truth is an illusion. Even so, Nietzsche’s philosophy of life is not a simple criticism of Christianity but is the exact opposite of it. What Christianity says is true must be false; what Christianity embraces must be destroyed. Nietzsche said, “Christianity has taken the side of everything weak, base, ill-constituted; it has made an ideal out of opposition to the preservative instincts of strong life.”
The solution? Nietzsche said that belief in Christianity had to be replaced with something better. That better idea, he proposed, was a world in which truth and morality were free-floating, fluid, and ever- changing at the whims of the master class. Doing what one desires in order to bring about joy is to be the ruler by which this grand society is to be measured. That was all well and good for Nietzsche, but it did not address the problem of the masses of slaves (which he termed “the herd”). What Nietzsche sought was a philosophy that would exclude the herd from any opportunity for enlightenment, which might lead to a higher life itself. However, there was one problem, and it was a huge one.
As soon as society declares that God is dead, all things become unhinged, ungrounded, and unbearable. The ultimate result is a state of suspended hopelessness and meaninglessness that philosophers term nihilism. Nihilism, from the Latin root nihil, “nothing,” is defined as the rejection of all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless. Nietzsche knew that his proclamation that “God is dead” naturally leads to a life that has no meaning or value, nor does anyone or anything else possess inherent value either.
Everyone on the planet becomes a Mad Max who exists in a wasteland Beyond Thunderdome in a meaningless world. To avoid the pitfalls of nihilism, Nietzsche’s new worldview needed a source of hope; it needed its own post-Christian eschaton. Nietzsche found what he was looking for in the idea of eternal recurrence. Nietzschean scholar Alistar Kee writes, “The death of God marks the end of belief in linear time.” Rather than linear time, eternal recurrence states that since time is cyclic, the same events eventually come around again and again. The life a person has, the events and moments in that life, will all be lived over and over again for eternity. There is no heaven and no hell, only eternal recurrence. It is very similar to the Eastern religions that teach karma and reincarnation.
By this mechanism, Nietzsche believed that only “the higher men,” those who have matured past a Christian worldview of right and wrong and will create their own value in their lives and rejoice in eternal recurrence. This is, in fact, the new ethical standard in Nietzsche’s post-God world: make sure you enjoy how you are spending your time because you will be doing it over and over again for eternity. That is the new eschaton; that is the eternal reward: freely doing what you want, by your own ethics, forever.
If I understand Nietzsche, he not only denies the existence of God but also denies the existence of any metaphysical reality whatsoever. In other words, according to Nietzsche’s worldview, there are no material-less spiritual beings, only beings made up of atoms. This is very interesting because there can be no continuity of personhood from one life to the next without a spiritual component. That is, there is no mechanism for the continuity of life without a material-less soul that transports personhood from one realm to the next.
Just as we laid charge to Nietzsche’s rejection of absolute truth and absolute moral values last week, it seems to me he once again finds himself in the philosopher’s no-man’s-land; in a state of contradiction. He does not believe in a metaphysical soul, yet his system of eternal recurrence demands that each person possess a soul for that same person to live life over and over again. Multiple points of internal contradiction, it would seem, eat away at Nietzsche’s philosophy of a viable post-Christian worldview. Coming about full circle, so to speak, the question remains: is God dead, as Nietzsche says, or isn’t He?
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife, Vicki, are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore, OK. You can contact him at dr.kerley@ isGoddead.com.
