Morality as Anti Nature

Morality as Anti Nature

Nietzsche has many reasons for despising Christianity: he feels

that it points out the wrong values for mankind, a weakness, and false

morality. As a religion, Nietzsche felt Christianity is adverse to truth-

seeking and scientific question; it replaced these values with blind

belief. Nietzsche's atheism is somewhat unusual, in that he takes the

non-existence of God as a given, not thinking twice about the proof of

God. The possible reality of a god is most of the time ignored as a

ridiculous notion by Nietzsche. In his writing he seems mush more

interested to analyze the philosophical and psychological foundations

of religious belief.

There are several key Christian ideas that Nietzsche dislikes in

particular. Nietzsche tries to separate each concept and criticize each

in turn. In Christianity it is said that, "each person has an immortal

soul and that all such souls are equal in the eyes of God are mainly

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interesting, and derive their power by appealing both to the anti-

aristocratic sentiment of the lower classes, as well as to individual

egos and their fear of death". Furthermore it is mention by Jesus that,

"the Christian soul serves a multifold purpose: as the locus for the

transcendence of all earthly behavior, the vehicle into the beyond of

heaven's immortality, and the grand equalizer by which the lowest

criminal has the same worth in God's eyes as the greatest king or

hero". The Christian soul is then maintained or purified by following

the codes of Christian morality, which emphasizes negative

enforcement of the moral code through fear, sin, guilt, or positive

enforcement by endorsing behaviors such pity, hope, love. While it is

easy for most to see the negative effects of sin and guilt, it is much

more difficult to see the mistakes behind love and hope.

Nietzsche concentrates his attack on these moral concepts.

Nietzsche mentions: "Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity

stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it

has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel

pity". He also mentions: "What is more harmful than any vice? Active

pity for all the failures and all the weak: Christianity". Next, Nietzsche

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criticizes Christian hope as a problem: "Those who suffer must be

sustained by a hope that can never be contradicted by any reality or

be disposed by any fulfillmentÐ'--a hope for the beyond'' One of the

most important concepts, love, is so-called by Nietzsche to be used by

Christian thought as a tool to influence there people. Nietzsche hate is

very personal towards Jesus and his people. He seems to be hurt by

the entire Christian system.

Nietzsche also believed Christianity to be deeply anti-scientific,

since much of it is based on obscuring. At the heart of Christianity is

an invisible, purely metaphysical god, a prime mover, an omnipresent

and omniscient deity with the power to exist or interfere in every

earthly process: