Nietzches Beliefs
Friedrich Nietzche, a German philosopher who was born in 1844 and passed away in 1900. Was one of the most influential philosophers of all time, he studied metaphysics and epistemology as a part of perspectivism. He is known for his writings on the good and evil, he was a freethinker who was also an atheist. Nietzche went on to write about “the death of God” but for someone who studied epistemology, how do the two connect?
Nietzche had talked about the death of god, but it is quite a weird thing to say that when you are an atheist. He was not an atheist in the sense he did not believe in God in the slightest, he believed heaven was a made-up place, another figment of our imagination if you want to call it that. Nietzche believed that maybe a god could have existed but he would not waste his thoughts on it. Saying that God is dead is his confirmation to himself that this figure does not exist, anymore at least. Because of him writing a book it created all types of reactions, people saying “I refuse to believe that my God is dead!” and people agreeing with him saying things along the lines of yes, this is true and it reached to other atheists as well, confirming their prior beliefs.
An example of this is if I was to tell you something is untrue when you believe it to be fully true. So, if I were to tell a little kid that Santa is not real, and he fully believes that he is real then he has the complete authority to ignore me and believe what he wants. This is the same premise, it is something you have no way of proving but you believe in it because you are optimistic that your faith in something is true.
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge and the correlation between knowledge and reality and is that Nietzche knew very much about as he studied it. Knowledge is defined as “fact, information, or skills acquired by a person through experience” and when you think of God, you may question how you believe in your faith because of lack of fact or experience. For all we know God has never been seen by the eyes of man. So, what makes him real? Is it the fact that I pray and good things may happen. Does the fact I believe it is true, make it true? I believe this is why Nietzche is an atheist as he has no way of proof. For a philosopher that is a big deal. A lot of philosophers are big with being able to know their work is true, but with God you never actually know. Epistemology in this case, is what Nietzche believes to be true, it is his truth and that is all it really needs to be, for him that is his knowledge and what he wants to put out in the world. “The death of God” is a meer look into what he thinks. He believes there is not a god existing in our world and there is not a god that we praise that is real, so when he writes this paper it is just his way of confirming that for all who believe the same set of principles that he does.
Epistemology, the study of knowledge and “The death of God” is surely not something you believe would always be connected but they are, epistemology is something that Nietzche was fluent in and he wouldn’t be able to think like this if he was not able to connect the two of them. The death of God is a very controversial piece and is not something new. The thought of atheism is not a new thought either. For these two things to be connected can just be a personal reason, meaning you have self proclaimed knowledge, and that knowledge is to be fact to you, How can anyone make the case for you to not write or believe this statement? Nietzche was a philosopher. He was an atheist and wrote a passage on the death of God, which he believes to be true in its own right So I ask, how do they not connect? Epistemology is not a certain belief or it does not have a certain set of rules. It is just knowledge, and if you believe that you are knowledgable on a topic as controversial as this and decide to write a passage about it, they go hand in hand as much as anything does. Nietzche was a firm believer in believing in your own philosophy, he was an atheist and was all about standing up for what you believe in because he was mainly alone with his belief until he released his paper “the death of God”. He wanted to be able to advocate for his own beliefs amd other peoples beliefs, atheism and his paper was his way of doing that.
There is always an irony found in philosophy with the mental gymnastics between epistemology and faith. Nietchze explains how God is dead and how mankind has killed him but doesn’t this question prove his belief in God in the first place? How can God be dead if he never existed to begin with?
Does his belief in the existence of God, only to be killed by man, distinguish his beliefs from his actual opinion? The current events in todays world can further deepen the divide between epistemology and Nietchze’s feelings that “God is dead.” More and more each day, people are finding themselves seeking the question in the existence of a supernatural being or if their faith in mankind will see them through this mess.
Does having a belief in humankind and it’s ulterior motives strengthen a persons belief in this world? Does the opinion that God would have seen us through these times if humans had not killed him off validate Nietchze’s opinion God isn’t worth existing in the first place? Epistemology and Nietchze’s idea that God is Dead can only strenghten the divide between a person’s faith in a spiritual God or their faith in humankind and either’s role in everyone’s existence.
Work cited
Rose, Matthew. “Death of God Fifty Years on: Matthew Rose.” First Things, 1 Aug. 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/08/death-of-god-fifty-years-on.
https://bigthink.com/thinking/what-nietzsche-really-meant-by-god-is-dead/
“The Political Message of Nietzsche's 'God Is Dead' | Lesley Chamberlain.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Feb. 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/feb/07/political-message-nietzsche-god-is-dead.
