Monday, August 22, 2016

Nietzche's Beliefs vs Christianity

I thought it was very interesting to learn about Nietzsche's take on Christianity because it was very nontraditional, but he made such good points to back up his ideas that it was hard to argue with. He explained two basic morals - one of the master and the other of the slave. The master morality is very self-involved and based on the will to power. The slave morality is all about generosity. The slaves feel resentment towards the master so they make themselves feel superior by saying that because they suffer in life now, they will be rewarded in the afterlife while their masters will suffer in hell. Nietzsche says that the master morality is superior because they are living happily and doing whatever they want for themselves without a care in the world. Because Christianity is all about doing good for others and being self-sacrificing so you will be rewarded in the afterlife, Nietzsche says that Christianity comes from the slave morality which is inferior; therefore, Christianity is inferior. He asks, what's the point of suffering for your whole life when you can live your life happily and enjoy it?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I thought it was interesting that Nietzsche not only opposed Christianity but all religions in general. Not a single one of the plethora of religions appealed to him and his master mentality. Nietzsche seems to believe that acts and events and life need weight to have meaning and he finds this meaning by appealing to his master mentality. In feeding his master mentality, one could say that Nietzsche was selfish but I think he wouldn't be opposed to being selfish because at least that means he is focusing on him and his needs. This vastly contradicts the ideals of Christianity and most other religions which aim to serve others in order to give life meaning thus placing them in the "slave mentality" category. Overall, I think it's intriguing to see the different ways in which religion vs Nietzsche bring meaning into the world and to see how Nietzsche's philosophy applies to life.