Philosophy 101, #8: Why did Nietzsche proclaim that “God is Dead”?

One of Friedrich Nietzsche’s most famous quotes is “God is dead”, but what did he mean with it?

The proclamation that God is dead appears in several of Nietzsche’s works. The most important passage in which he discusses the death of God can be found in aphorism 125 of The Gay Science (1882) entitled “The madman”. The funny, but absurd and wise passage describes a madman who, in clear daylight, visits the market place in order to look for God and to announce that we have killed Him. He compares His death with the drinking up of the sea, the erasing of the horizon, and the disconnecting of the Earth from its Sun. Nietzsche writes:

Have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly: "I seek God! I seek God!" - As there were many people standing about who did not believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement. Why! is he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a child? said another. Or does he keep himself hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea-voyage? Has he emigrated? - the people cried out laughingly, all in a hubbub. The insane man jumped into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. "Where is God gone?" he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him, - you and I! We are all his murderers! But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forewards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine putrefaction? - for even Gods putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers?

How did we kill God?

Nietzsche believes that God is dead, because the Christian religion has become incredible. People’s loss of religious belief in Western Europe was already visible in the ideas of many intellectuals. Marx had for example declared religion to be the opium of the masses, and Darwin’s theory of evolution had raised serious questions regarding the Bible’s authority. Hence, the proclamation that “God is dead” should not be taken literally, but figuratively. Nietzsche is crystal clear that this is how it should be interpreted at the start of aphorism 343 of The Gay Science:

The most important of more recent events - that "God is dead," that the belief in the Christian God has become unworthy of belief - already begins to cast its first shadows over Europe.

What's the consequence of the death of God?

Nietzsche himself did not believe in God. Nonetheless, Nietzsche describes a troublesome future for our loss of religion as it would result in the collapse of European morality. He writes in aphorism 343:

… so much was built upon it, so much rested on it, and had become one with it: for example, our entire European morality. This lengthy, vast and uninterrupted process of crumbling, destruction, ruin and overthrow which is now imminent: who has realised it sufficiently today to have to stand up as the teacher and herald of such a tremendous logic of terror, as the prophet of a period of gloom and eclipse, the like of which has probably never taken place on earth before?

Nietzsche believed that the death of God would introduce a period of nihilism – a period of absurdity where people have no order, no truth, and no goals or ideals to pursue as the protective and meaning-to-life giving character of religion has disappeared.

How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers?

Nietzsche proposes a new way of life. One in which we create our own values in a life-affirming manner. In a future post, I will discuss Nietzsche's views of how we should console ourselves with the death of God and how we should deal with nihilism.

Reference

Nietzsche, F. (1882). The Gay Science.

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