TERRADO, Jessica Joy P.
MWF 4:00 – 5:00 P404
“When Nietzsche says 'God is dead', he is not stating 'God is physically dead'; he is
saying that God is no longer relevant, nor should he be used as a basis for moral code. However,
this is where it gets slightly confusing for people when they read his work. They believe if you
take away God as a morality measurer, because the majority does not believe in God anymore,
you arrive at Nihilism. This is not what Nietzsche was hoping to achieve.
The loss of an absolute basis for morality does not, for Nietzsche, automatically arrive at
Nihilis, although he recognizes the crisis which the death of God represents for existing moral
considerations, because "When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian
morality out from under one's feet. This morality is by no means self-evident.... By breaking one
main concept out of Christianity, the faith in God, one breaks the whole: nothing necessary
remains in one's hands."(Twilight of the Idols: sect. 5)
This is why Nietzsche has written the words "God is dead" being spoken by a madman.
The madman is mainly speaking to Atheists when he is shouting at people in the market place;
the problem with Nihilism is it is hard to retain any system of values in the absence of a divine
order. What Nietzsche wanted people to do, after they reject Religious morality, is to reevaluate
their basis for human morality, & arrive at an ethical system based purely on human values, with
which one can make a judgment for morality, not involving God or any higher cosmic order.
We are our own authority, & we need to make our own values. I think in this instance
then one can safely say Nietzsche is an affirmative philosopher, as it appears that he wants to
reject Nihilism as the only result of the rejection of a cosmic order, despite its simplicity, in favor
of a more positive outlook on morality. A philosopher who is not affirmative would not take
steps, after this rejection of God, to rebuild any meaning to life. They would be happier to exist
within Nihilism.” (mexican_seafooduk, 2008)
What I understood from Nietzsche was that man’s ways have led him to behave
according to church dogmas which inevitably turn him into an ‘unthinking’ machine. Christians
only become Christians in name and not in acts. Morality is now measured in the face of one’s
religion and creates a moral and spiritual gap in man.
However, in his succeeding works, Nietzsche offers answers to gaining back the measure
of morality in an individual. With the death of God, there comes the freeing of the body. This
freedom is what allows an individual to make decisions on his own, re-inventing oneself to
create and decide for values, where judgments are not based on church dogmas but in what one
understands.
He considered that earthly lives could become more joyful, meaningful and "healthy"
when not lived within narrow limits set by faith-related concerns for the state of an individual's
eternal soul. Nietzsche seems to be suggesting that the acceptance that God is dead will also
involve the ending of long-established standards of morality and of purpose.
In my opinion, God is dead. We are slowly moving away from the ingrained dogmas of
the church and are currently finding our way to reinvention. We have determined the faults of
our religion and are slowly coming to accept it at face-value. I believe that we become more
aware of the faults of conventional religion and our own faults too, our blind faith and our fear,
which is what enslaves man to conformity and keeps us from conquering our weaknesses, both
social and moral. The Reproductive Health Law stirred up a lot of feathers in the Philippine
social context. There were the unending retorts of the Church that upholding such Law is
immoral and inhumane because it promotes pre-marital sex and abortion and slowly degrades the
Filipino family culture and value.
The Church has made it clear that with its promotion, it enables young adults to engage in
deviant acts because the provisions has provided it to be so, flooding markets and drug stores
with the ‘paraphernalia’.
I say that with this particular issue, God is dead. Groups have emerged and were in
constant battle with the Church. They have supported and rallied for the Bill until it became a
Law and are still in support of it after. We have recognized the faults of conventional religion.
Church dogmas would state that life is a gift and ending it is not within our hands but on the
Maker’s. Pro-RH groups have replied that it is better to not create a life and prevent it rather
than subject him or her to the harsh conditions of life, which he or she will undoubtedly face
because of the higher rates of pregnancy well within the poverty line, or families who are still
dependent on society’s meager help and support.
With this, the basis of our morality shifts from that of the Church’s to within our own
understanding.
When the PDAF scam was exposed, the Filipino masses were enraged, crying out for
justice and compensation. Janet-Lim Napoles was held under the proverbial microscope as
stacks upon stacks of papers were held in evidence supporting the claim that she was behind the
corruption of almost over 100M pesos. The Political Science & History Department of Ateneo
de Davao University has issued an Open Statement on the PDAF Issue, stating that they will be
ever vigilant in their “relentless pursuit of educating all stakeholders of society particularly our
students, co-faculty and fellow educators, as well as the need for their participation in this noble
quest for truth and justice”. “We call not just for action, but for avenues of discussion as well.
We call the people to recognize their true power, to acknowledge that the authority of the state
rests on the consent of the people. When our government fails us, we are in no position to suffer
their failures; we are in power to change them. Reforms in the government are not enough. The
people have to empower themselves in order to create fundamental change in the society.
The time is now. Our nation has suffered long enough. To remain apathetic is not only to
give consent to the hardships of the people, it is not just to become an accomplice to the crimes
of the government, it is to dishonour the faith that condemns greed and corruption by those in
power. Let us bring glory to the Almighty by our concrete actions to suspend the evils of this
nation.”
Works Cited
age-of-the-sage.org. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2014, from age-of-the-sage.org:
http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/friedrich_nietzsche_quotes.html
Chamberlain, L. (2012, February 07). Big Ideas. Retrieved January 10, 2014, from
theguardian.com:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/feb/07/political-messagenietzsche-god-is-dead
Gier, J. D. (2002). Friedrich Nietzsche: God Is Dead. Retrieved January 10, 2014, from
vision.org: http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=554
mexican_seafooduk. (2008). answers.yahoo.com. Retrieved January 10, 2014, from yahoo.com:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080407183943AA7803D