The mad man in Nietzsche’s The Gay Science made the bold statement, “God is dead.” He explained that we as human beings actually killed God and since we have nowhere to turn but ourselves we should liberate ourselves from our incessant search for a God that we created. If we stop searching for a God that “doesn’t exist,” we will then free ourselves from a life dictated by the search of God and we will then begin to define and shape our own lives. We killed God because the God we created stands for morals and values. Human beings have been straying away from the morals and teachings that we created. If we accept that God is a creation made because of us then are we selfish beings who do not want to face our own lives?
If we do not want to face our own lives are we denying our true beings? Are we being selfish by not facing our own true being then? I believe that Nietzsche would find that we are being selfish if we deny our true need to be “yes-sayers,” or people that are free to shape their own life. What are you views on this? I seem to struggle with the concept that if we believe in God then we are searching for a self-made figment of our imaginations. Do you think that God is in fact “dead” due to our own decisions and actions throughout history? Perhaps if a few people explain their ideas I’ll understand Nietzsche a little more. Nietzsche seems like a complex character himself. I can’t help but wonder why he challenged the concept of God. Our book The Good Life does not give many details into the life of Nietzsche and does not give much of an account on why he challenges the thought of God. Would he find his own challenge on the thought of God a necessary in nature? Nietzsche claims that all nature occurs because of necessity. If we, as human beings, are part of nature than is everything we do done out of necessity?
Perhaps I’m simply rambling, but I ramble in hopes that someone can explain Nietzsche a little bit further and perhaps even answer some of my more difficult questions. Please feel free to correct me as well if I have portrayed any of the information incorrectly.
Also, I stumbled across this picture a few weeks back. I figured I would post it in the spirit of the holiday! Maybe even a few of you would like to take on the challenge of carving your own Nietzsche.
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI too am a little taken back by Nietzsche's theory. I think that he's not focusing so much on challenging the concept of God. What he seems to be trying to do is to explain to the reader that we need to start taking responsibility for our own actions, independent of external factors. So, he's saying that God is dead because people began to take account for their own actions. Only when we decide to live independent of external factors on which we can place blame for our actions, can we truly become strong human beings.
In saying that things happen out of necessity. He is saying that things don't happen because we want them to, but simply because "that's just the way that things are." Take the bird example in the Genealogy of Morals. The birds prey because it is in their nature. They prey out of necessity. So animals can't hold them accountable and put the blame on them for their own weakness (weakness of the animals being preyed upon). We have to realize the necessity of our lives and be happy with the way that things are. Once we do this, we will be able to take responsibility for our own actions and be stronger human beings.
I hope this helped a little.
Liz,
ReplyDeletei find your question on how Nietzsche's works in the gay science fit in with the theme of the book "The Good Life" to be a very interesting question. As i read your post, i began to wonder that my self, for it seemed that in fact anyone who read this excerpt and and was a believer in God would in fact become very sad and very confused, wondering if his entire life had been spent believing in a lie. In short it would not have led to a very "good life."
But after a while I began to see it as Nietzsche unveiling, what he believes is a viel, from our eyes, in order to allow us to see things clearer, and thus have a clearer understanding of ourself, our environment, and our lives. He is doing so hoping that we undersand that we are the judges of our Acts, our Will, and the Consequences which results from them, not God. He wants us to take responsibilities for our actions and become Yes-sayers, so that if we were to act, and later were asked "if you were to do it over again, would you?" our answers would be "yes. yes I would."