Nietzsche philosophy is very much a philosophy of aggressive acceptance. Acceptance of this world, acceptance of yourself, acceptance of your faith and for example the Christian notion of the otherworldly, a heaven to which we can aspire; is to him a notion that utterly subtracts from the importance of this world and this life.
One of the most famous of Nietzsche's outrageous statements is the claim that "God is dead". To understand simply as a religious statement or an atheistic statement is, I think, to misunderstand the profundity of what Nietzsche is getting at. First of all, "God is dead" refers not to a theological proposition but rather to the moral state of the modern world. One looks at the world and what becomes evident, one sees that much of what is called Christianity in these small towns and so on, really is a kind of stale hypocrisy. It's force of habit. It's mere to use a word that both Nietzsche and Kierkegaard love: heard behavior. It's going along with everyone else. In Kierkegaard's terms it absolutely lacks passion and commitment and in Nietzsche's terms it really lacks any moral sanction. It doesn't do anything. People can consider themselves good Christians and nevertheless go out and cheat and steal in business and feel as if going to church for an hour a week somehow makes it all better.
The truth of it is "God is dead" in a sense that we don't believe in him anymore even if we claim to. Nietzsche would just assume be done with it. And "God is dead" the also becomes a kind of statement about the future of the modern world.
Thought-provoking, thunderous jazz-metal from Krallice's Nicholas McMaster and Lev Weinstein — two of NYC's most respected metal musicians. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 20, 2018
Featuring members of Noothgrush, Graves at Sea, and more, the Oakland metal band juxtapose cavernous doom with spaced-out shoegaze. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 21, 2024