God Is Dead...Now What?
"“God is dead; but given the ways of men, perhaps for millennia to come there will be caves in which his shadow will be shown.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Joyous Science”
An idea of God will always be around.
I think Nietzsche was correct about religion as a whole. At the end of the day, mankind seems to always want a reason to explain why the world works the way it does, even there’s not an explainable reason. We can develop explanations for why we exist, the meaning of the universe, and how volcanoes work once we create gods and religions. I don’t think religion will ever completely go away.
NIHILISM AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
Nihilism, which is the viewpoint that there is no meaning to life, appeals to almost no one. Once a person views life as meaningless, all hope in life is lost. Mankind developed religion as a way to explain why bad things happen to good people. If an earthquake occurs in Lisbon, Portugal and kills thousands of innocent people, people can say, “well, it was God’s will.”
In his book “The Geneaology of Morals,” Nietzsche highlights that religion is also a form of nihilism as well. He specifically highlights Christianity as being European nihilism. The reason why is, because Christianity promotes the afterlife and heaven over life here on Earth. Christianity says life on Earth is not important and meaningful. The only thing that’s meaningful is Heaven and life after death. Therefore, the solution for nihilism creates its own form of nihilism.
A SOLUTION TO NIHILISM
Nietzsche’s solution to this is to turn away from the nihilism of religion and instead find meaning in the lives we know that we have. Rather than turning to religion, we would find meaning to our lives here while we’re alive. There is no objective meaning to life. The only meaning in life is the meaning we give it ourselves.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Religion was created to combat nihilism, yet religion is nihilistic itself.
Religion is on the decline, especially in the West. This has caused the West and the rest of the world to become nihilistic again.
A solution is finding our own meaning in life, rather than finding meaning in religion.
References
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1882). The Joyous Science, pg. 121. Translated (2018) Hill, Kevin. Penguin Random House
May nahilism be the origin of west decline? and also the reason for such high rate of depression and suicides?
I think the argument that Christianity is nihilistic is an oversimplification that ignores many key components of Christianity. Christianity doesn't state that life on Earth is not important, quite the contrary. Christianity states that life on Earth is important beyond the present. What we do in life is what we do in death. The afterlife me be viewed as the most important part of ones existence but only to the affect that what we do now directly correlates with this end. It is meaningful to help others, work for something beyond the self, and to live life as if our actions have some divine consequence. The Christian idea of afterlife doesn't remove meaning from Earth but rather adds to it. Our actions are meaningful to the extent that they align us with a will beyond our own.
I would also argue that secularism inevitable leads to nihilism. As the world has gotten more secular and less community oriented, nihilism hasn't only increased, but by many, it has become embraced almost as if a virtue. I don't think meaningless appeals to almost no one, It is actually the opposite. America and the west is full of people who accept a meaningless existence living by day to day whims. To many the pursuit of meaning has become a fruitless chore that is ignored in favor of endless scrolling, working, etc. If we are to reject God, this may not be a bad thing.
Nietzsche actually has it backwards. While we can apply our own subjective meaning to our lives, this meaning is weightless without God. If there is no God, our lives only have the meaning we give them. Meaning in this sense is superficial. The most tyrannical dictator could find his own subjective meaning in being as cruel as possible. He could justify his existence in his ability to make others suffer, and why shouldn't he? He has absolute moral authority over his own actions. Subjective meaning as well as morality is in itself meaningless. If we are to reject God then we should reject meaning altogether. Perhaps those who are not bothered by a sense of meaninglessness are correct in their rejection in the search for meaning. Without God, we simply have no definition of a life of meaning that itself is meaningful.