Nietzsche’s Critique of Religion and the Rise of the Superman
Nietzsche’s Critique of Religion and Morality
1. Critique of Religion and its Morality: Nietzsche criticizes religion and its morality because he sees it as nihilistic. He argues that all religion is false because it relies on transcendent realities. He discusses the necessity of religion, noting that it arises in every culture, seemingly because everyone needs to believe in something. Nietzsche’s genealogical method involves looking for the origin of everything. What is the origin of religious belief? He posits that religious causes include resentment and the fear of life. “What frightens us, we deny, and we manufacture a reality with which we are most comfortable.” The origin of religion, he adds, is tied to resentment.
Christianity and its moral psychology are seen as the religion of the weak. Christian morality is a weak morality. In contrast, there is the morality of the strong, those not afraid of life. Nietzsche seeks to discover the anti-vital motivations at the core of our values. If these values are based on fear of life, they are objectionable. Christian morality, according to Nietzsche, is moral decadence stemming from resentment. The Christian moral personality represents weakness, in contrast to the morality of the strong. Nietzsche argues that when Christianity was imposed, the weak imposed their morality on the strong, universalizing weak values based on the idea that we are all alike (an idea put forth by Christianity). If something is good, it is considered good for everyone. However, Nietzsche contends that no conduct or value is relative; it has a standard meaning within a culture. Weak values are dogmatized, treated as if they are inherent properties of people.
The Death of God
The Death of God: Nietzsche’s declaration that “God is dead” has two possible interpretations:
- Humans created God, and anything can replace God (the state, science, etc.).
- Humans are confused, having lost beliefs and certainties. This marks the end of history and the beginning of a new historical epoch.
Nietzsche’s proposals in response to the death of God are:
- Transmutation of values
- The Superman
- Eternal return
Transmutation of Values
1. Transmutation of Values: To live, we must have values. Transmutation involves going beyond the established range to recover the true values of life. According to Nietzsche, this is the triumph of the morality of the strong, with beliefs arising from oneself, leading to the Superman.
The Superman
2. The Superman: The Superman believes in their own values, recovering what is instinctive and natural in human beings, restoring a sense of nature and the physical in the face of rationality. The Superman will become a free spirit. The death of God, the loss of transcendental ideas, is necessary for the Superman to emerge.
The appearance of the Superman involves a metamorphosis, the emergence of something new and superior. This revival has three phases:
- Camel: Represents a life of misery, doomed to obey and carry burdens. It symbolizes the conventional person who believes in obeying God and transcendental references, following established values—the weak.
- Lion: Represents those who are more independent and masters of their own destiny. It symbolizes the nihilistic Nietzsche and his philosophy (positive, optimistic), creating freedom from values.
- Child: Represents innocence at all times. In childhood, we live in the present. It symbolizes the Superman, living free of harm, a free spirit who learns that life is made up of moments. The child has the courage to go against the grain, against what is established, against the majority.
Eternal Return
3. Eternal Return: This is a philosophical concept. Nietzsche is concerned with making sense of the Superman’s way of life, the capacity to live each moment as it comes. Grasping the concept of becoming is essential to being a Superman. What helps makes one strong is good; what weakens is bad. Each individual determines good and bad—this is freedom.
Something can be good at one time and not helpful at another. There is no need to appeal to a transcendental reality; one cannot deny reality. To make sense of this attitude to life, one must live in the moment. Eternal recurrence means living every moment as if it were about to repeat constantly, without escapism. If you renounce yourself or are false, you condemn that distortion to be repeated. If you are doomed to constantly repeat something, it should be something good.
If there is no beginning or end, it is eternal. Atoms are eternal. The passage of time is the material that is in continuous evolution. Reality consists of things that are expelled from the wheel that turns. What is ejected are different moments. This draws upon ideas of Greek philosophers. To live like the Superman, one must live in the present and accept the eternal return, demanding personal effort to create oneself as a free spirit.