Existentialism friedrich nietzsche god is dead full quote

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Friedrich nietzsche on death

And we have killed him. Nietzsche was writing, of course, in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, a time in which science, mathematics, and philosophy arose across Europe to displace Christianity as the guiding authority on truth about life and the universe. Atheism became not only acceptable among citizens, but popular. Without a divine power underpinning our existential situation and moral outlooks, however, our paths into the future became rather uncertain.

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? In other words: where do we go from here? T he appropriate response to the age of Enlightenment leading to the death of God, Nietzsche argues, should not be a jeering celebration, nor a shrug of indifference, but a period of deep disorientation and mourning.

God was not just an innocuous source of faith and worship, Nietzsche recognizes: God was the indubitable authority that lent power and legitimacy to Judeo-Christian moral values. In one concise email each Sunday, I break down a famous idea from philosophy. You get the distillation straight to your inbox.