God is Dead – Friedriche Nietzsche – The Gay Science – Aphorism 125 – The Madman

I'm a Christian but Nietzsche is an Atheist I can respect. He understood the consequences of the death of God. This phrase is paradoxical in the sense that we know God to be omnipotent thus cannot be dead.  Nietzsche was trying to imply how religion has lost its place in our cultures.

He did not believe in Christianity.  He believed that Christianity emerged in the late Roman Empire where timid slaves lacked bravery. I found it interesting how he related Christianity and drinking alcohol as one in the same.  He despised both because he referred to them as “pain numbers”. Despite his beliefs that religion was false, he thought that religious beliefs were beneficial in helping humanity cope with problems of daily life.  He believed that religion left a gap and that culture should replace scripture. The problem with that today is how we are addressing culture.

            Religion was once deeply rooted in politics, philosophy, science, literature, art, music, education, everyday social life, and the inner spiritual lives of individuals. But we see today that our culture has become secularized. However, this is not a new trend.  In the 18^th century with the Enlightenment, this intellectual and cultural movement emphasized reason and evidence rather than scripture or tradition should be the basis for our beliefs.

I believe the illustration that Nietzsche was trying to point out is that if we no longer see God as a philosophical source of moral values, it gives us the opportunity to create new values.  The issue with that is for thousands of years, our thinking has been anchored in the moral principles we follow have the authority of religion. When we deviate from that code, anxiety, fear, panic, and chaos seems to arise because most humans fear trying “new ways” just as described in the text of the Madman where confusion took root and the people were asking fearful questions.  Some will argue that moral code is not determined by religion and faith is no longer a reliable way to determine moral code.   I've seen horrible religious people and nice atheists, and vice versa.  

Nietzsche believed if one does not believe in God, they reject all religious and moral principles and believe that life is meaningless. In this context, we have an opportunity to create our own moral code beyond the traditional theological concepts of good and evil. He believed we could become superman and overcome all obstacles.