On God's Death And Nietzsche's Plead

People misunderstand Nietzsche's famous statement; "God Is Dead."
They get Nietzsche wrong much the same.

They misunderstand for a number of reasons, one of which is because the statement is not as much of a statement as it is a question, a plead really.
And they also get it (and Nietzsche) wrong because morals (Ethics) and god's existence or lack there of (Theology) are secondary to this question.
It is, in fact, not a theological or ethical question.
(Although, perhaps you could say they're involved)

It isn't a question of God's existence, that is decided (for Nietzsche), it isn't a question of moral integrity, that is- less decided but comparatively decided;
It is a question directed at humanity, to question its own path and existence.
It pleads thus;
We have killed God. What do we do now? Where do we go from here? What do we do next? Is it worth doing anything at all?

For Nietzsche, this question perplexed him. He found his answer in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in the Ubermensch.

But before that, there was only this;

[quote]God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?[/quote]

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reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M

but why do you say "is it worth doing anything?" ? are you meaning by this that you think this passage is to confront us with how meaningless life would be without the concept of god or do you think it means the oposite, like waking up from living in an illusion and suddenly being 100% free and responsable for our lives with only ourselves to create our own rules and morals and reason to live, a bit like the existentialism or Sartres?

soberSimplicity · 18-21, T

@reflectingmonkey Sartre's answers to that question are similar to (as well as inspired by) Nietzsche's, but not exactly the same. Im not necessarily Nietzschean or Sartrean myself, though perhaps more of a Nietzschean than Sartrean.

I personally interpret it to mean that Nietzsche is asking this question to humanity as an organism, since no human was the killer of God, but instead humanity was. Humanism itself is founded on God (or Christianity more rather, I *personally* wouldn't use the wording "God" here, but Nietzsche did and would). So Humanity itself is almost at stake in the death of God.

This is why the Ubermensch is such a natural conclusion to the death of God. Since, if God, the foundation of humanity, of human definition, of humanism, is dead, so too is humanity dead, and so it is time for a next evolution. A crossing from Human to Ubermensch.

To answer your question more directly though, the reason I say "is it worth doing anything" is because of Nietzsche's interest, and more likely fear, of "The Last Man" (as it was called in Thus Spoke Zarathustra). Wherein humanity almost devolves in the process, becoming consumed by its utilitarian mechanisms and hedonistic affirmations. He has chosen not to do anything. It is, so to speak, "the last man".

All of this is also why sometimes Nietzsche's philosophy and the concept of the Ubermensch is called the first "Post-Humanism".

reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M

@soberSimplicity a yes, I see your point and its where I was hoping you would go. its this conection between the death of god and the ubermensh that made me then think of Sartre because in Sartre its the abandonment of the concept of life having a meaning which frees humans but leaves a vacuum that needs to be filled. once the idea of a single meaning of life that we need to find is abandoned we need to take charge and create the meaning of life that we want, thus "existence precedes essence", the famous quote from Sartres, means that life has no integrated meaning,(essence) we create the meaning as we go on (existence), so existence then precedes essence, so odly, two of the most famous philosophical quotes, "god is dead" and " existence precedes essence" , come from similar lines of questioning and lead to similar conclusions. they are really the same but with different historical backgrounds.

soberSimplicity · 18-21, T

Have two posts on Nietzsche now. Weird. I need to post about other people.

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