God is dead?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hoosier
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Hoosier

Guest
I would feel intellectually dishonest if I didn’t post here that I have read and agreed with a lot of Nietzsche’s writings - The Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil, etc. However, I was also feeling lonely and lost, and didn’t want to go insane from loneliness as he likely did, so I gave church/God another try. I know how craven that sounds, but please give me credit for being honest.
Has anyone else here read Nietzsche? What did you think?
 
Hoosier said:
Has anyone else here read Nietzsche? What did you think?
Click to expand...
I have not read him yet. Next year, though, I will – it’s part of the senior year curriculum. But I very much doubt that I’ll agree with much of what he has to say.

Based on what I HAVE read, though, I would suggest that you should give St. Augustine (particularly his Confessions) or maybe parts of St. Thomas’ Summa Theologica a shot, if you haven’t already.
 
Thanks for those ideas. I’m really trying to keep an open mind.
I’ve been very impressed with the level of discourse on this website. People here seem to think out what they say and post respectfully.
 
No, God isn’t dead, Friedrich Nietzsche is dead. Mr. Nietzsche has been dead since 1900 and Mr. Nietzsche will remain dead untill further notice.

Atheism completly throws all philosphy and cultural studies into the waste-paper basket, ie “naturalism is the only explaniation for existance and humans are just water sacs that have no value in the long run”. Thus, human worth can’t be set apart from the worth of trees or rocks in the atheistic worldview.

I reccomend “The Twilight of Atheism” by Dr. Allister McGrath

Also, it was actually the writings of Nietzsche and Marx that drove the boodiest regiemes in history, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Communist Red China under Mao (not the vastly overblown Crusades or Inquisition mind you).
 
PatThePoet said:
No, God isn’t dead, Friedrich Nietzsche is dead. Mr. Nietzsche has been dead since 1900 and Mr. Nietzsche will remain dead untill further notice.
. . . .
Click to expand...
I presume that he is someplace busy writing on a blackboard God Is Not Dead. 😃
 
“God is dead” is one of the most misunderstood quotes in history. And Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood philosophers in history.
 
PatThePoet said:
No, God isn’t dead, Friedrich Nietzsche is dead. Mr. Nietzsche has been dead since 1900 and Mr. Nietzsche will remain dead untill further notice.
Click to expand...
:rotfl:

Reminds me of:

God is Dead
-Nietzsche

Nietzsche is Dead
-God

As I recall from my survey of philosophy class, much if not all of Nietasche’s writings dealt with Nihilism (Correct me if I’m wrong…I slept through most of the modern philosophy class) 😉

Good philosophers can put forth a notion in a way that will have us agreeing with their point of view; that makes them good philosophers, not necessarily that their philosoply is good. 😉
 
Good philosophy should ask more questions then it answers.

It should make one think, not necessarily agree/disagree.
 
masterjedi747 said:
I have not read him yet. Next year, though, I will – it’s part of the senior year curriculum. But I very much doubt that I’ll agree with much of what he has to say.

Based on what I HAVE read, though, I would suggest that you should give St. Augustine (particularly his Confessions) or maybe parts of St. Thomas’ Summa Theologica a shot, if you haven’t already.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about the senior year of high school? I’m impressed with that deep a reading level at that age. That goes for the St. Augustine and St Thomas, too.

From what I understand of Nietzsche, he was Dionysian, not nihilistic. He was not an anti-semitic and didn’t think that Germans per se were the “master race.” I agree that his words were twisted and misappropriated by Hitler and by his own sister, who did have an anti-semitic agenda.

Again, I appreciate that fact that I can even post these comments at a Christian website and not get just a bunch of knee-jerk, you’re-going-to-hell replies. Would that all people thought about what they believe as much.
 
Hoosier said:
I would feel intellectually dishonest if I didn’t post here that I have read and agreed with a lot of Nietzsche’s writings - The Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil, etc. However, I was also feeling lonely and lost, and didn’t want to go insane from loneliness as he likely did, so I gave church/God another try. I know how craven that sounds, but please give me credit for being honest.
Has anyone else here read Nietzsche? What did you think?
Click to expand...
Nietzche’s quote wasn’t actually referring to God in the sense that we think, he was referring to the state. At that time there was another philosophy running through Germany where people would “worship” the government. He made the quote concerning the government. At least that’s what I was told, if someone else out there can confirm this it would be helpful. My nihilist philosophy isn’t all that sharp. It’s also ironic that this post would come on ole Freddie’s birthday.
 
CapIV said:
“God is dead” is one of the most misunderstood quotes in history. And Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood philosophers in history.
Click to expand...
A thousand times yes.

‘God is dead’ is only half of it: the second part is and we are the ones who have killed Him. Yes, Nietzsche was no fan of religion, but his distaste for it was considerably more nuanced than he’s usually given credit for by the religious.

And I see the usual stuff is being thrown around, so here are some tidbits:
  • He was not a nihilist, he was an extreme secular humanist. Nihilists: everything is meaningless, wah wah angst angst angst vs Nietzsche: just wait till you see what’s around this corner!
  • Nietzsche did not inspire Hitler, Hitler used Nietzsche as a figurehead (being dead, Friedrich couldn’t object; his Nazi sister Elizabeth cherrypicked and ‘creatively edited’ some of his work into Der Wille Zur Macht).
  • Nietzsche hated nationalism more than he hated just about anything else, and he was good at hating things.
  • Actual quote from his personal letters: ‘I am just out having all anti-Semites shot’.
  • The ‘bloodiest regimes in history’ were so because they were totalitarian, not because they were secular. Any religion other than whatever may be enforced by the state is a threat to a totalitarian regime. See also Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini, those good Catholic boys; Adolf Hitler, a believer of some sort, originally Catholic; Pol Pot, a Buddhist; and so on and so forth. Totalitarianism is the problem, not religion, not atheism, not mere secularism, not capitalism, and not communism.
I’m beginning to think that nobody should get to talk about Nietzsche without first having read at least a quick article-length biography of the man and Also Sprach Zarathustra. He’s probably in the top five misunderstood historical figures ever, and all the lies being spread about him by people who can’t be bothered to do a little research isn’t helping.
 
Hoosier said:
I would feel intellectually dishonest if I didn’t post here that I have read and agreed with a lot of Nietzsche’s writings - The Antichrist, Beyond Good and Evil, etc. However, I was also feeling lonely and lost, and didn’t want to go insane from loneliness as he likely did, so I gave church/God another try. I know how craven that sounds, but please give me credit for being honest.
Has anyone else here read Nietzsche? What did you think?
Click to expand...
Let’s see he was the funny farm guy that died in the care of his mother and sister because of a mental disorder in 1900. I don’t know but maybe I wouldn’t put too much trust in his world view… But, hey that’s just me.😉
 
You may want to read G.K. Chesterton. He didn’t write his most famous pieces to counter nihilism, rather early 20th century atheism, but you still might enjoy it.

Orthodoxy was hilarious, especially if you grew up with the Platonists. I’ve heard he wrote “The Everlasting Man” in response to H.G. Well’s “A Brief Outline of History.” (I’m reading H.G. Well’s book, never read Everlasting Man)
 
Thanks to everyone who replied, esp. Midrath. I have read Zarathustra, by the way.
I’m agnostic but open-minded and searching. I’d sure like to feel all this peace and love that God represents to some people (and I do have things that I repent), but I’m drawing a blank. I appreciate the good intentions and fellowship of others, but having a very hard time feeling anything about a God, much less that Jesus died for my sins. Will and the kindness of strangers have sustained me.
 
Hoosier said:
Thanks to everyone who replied, esp. Midrath. I have read Zarathustra, by the way.
I’m agnostic but open-minded and searching. I’d sure like to feel all this peace and love that God represents to some people (and I do have things that I repent), but I’m drawing a blank. I appreciate the good intentions and fellowship of others, but having a very hard time feeling anything about a God, much less that Jesus died for my sins. Will and the kindness of strangers have sustained me.
Click to expand...
if you want to begin feeling the love and satisfaction of a relationship with God, you have to get to know and Trust in Him. Because you are of the mind to seek answers, you are on the right track.
 
Hoosier said:
Thanks to everyone who replied, esp. Midrath. I have read Zarathustra, by the way.
I’m agnostic but open-minded and searching. I’d sure like to feel all this peace and love that God represents to some people (and I do have things that I repent), but I’m drawing a blank. I appreciate the good intentions and fellowship of others, but having a very hard time feeling anything about a God, much less that Jesus died for my sins. Will and the kindness of strangers have sustained me.
Click to expand...
Join the club – although I have found peace enough in the knowledge that some things are unknowable 🙂
 
I don’t really care much for Nietzsche… I’ve not read much of him, though. But I’m Catholic, so no real surprise there…

I agree with the guy who said to read Aquinas. Personally, I don’t think Augustine will float your boat unless you’re really well versed in scripture and don’t mind constant :eek: and sometimes obscure biblical allusions. Or maybe it’s just that I like Aquinas better.

Also, if you want to, read Phillip K, ****'s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich… just because it is vaguely related to the “God is dead” topic…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top