God Is Dead and We Have Killed Him - Comments

It is exceedingly challenging to have faith in something that you cannot sense or see directly. In point of fact, if you are just doing nice deeds (which you may or may not have learnt from the bible) for the sake of being good or because you are good, then I think it is even more admirable. geometry dash subzero

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Although I'm not an expert, I think you just made a really good argument fnf

Nice article. Thansk for sharing lol beans

@ cleopatra.
I haven't read this article in 3 years. So, I actually had to go back and read the whole thing to really understand your comment. It was back in my University days where I studied Philosophy every day for the fun of it. I actually sort of miss it

I did not go back and read all of the comments, but I do appreciate you highlighting that one comment. I agree that it is really interesting and baffling how intense and different people's views on God and the bible are. In particular this one, which seems to come out and say that since people do not choose to believe in what the bible teaches them, they will be the downfall of humankind. I don't ever remember reading this, or maybe I didn't fully understand it at the time...or maybe I was more on the bright side of things when replying. I feel like everything you are saying really reflects how I think about things as well. It is very difficult to believe in something you cannot feel or see. In fact, I would find it even better if you are simply doing good things (that you may or may not have learned from the bible) to be good, or because you are good.

I really appreciate your comment. Especially the last bit. It's especially enlightening to think of how those who do not particularly believe deal with death, or mental illness, or finding help outside of the world of religion. I think it would be even more interesting to talk about something like this in consideration with other religions besides Christianity.

this is a very interesting article that caught my attention partly bc of the title so good job!

i like the way you approach this. you're taking the seriousness of a view - in this case, based around religion - & making it lighthearted & easy to follow. im more agnostic on the case of all this. i can't prove that there is a god & i can't prove that there isn't so im simply cruising through life w/ all these questions & more of a spiritual view on the world.

i read a few of the comments & what not & am really intrigued by how people follow the bible, especially bc god himself didn't come down & write it for everyone to follow. & in some other cases, being restricted by the bible or doing what "god wants us to do" or however the bible works for people...it just sounds baffling to me. along w/:

Zinkesis:

human-beings will not survive and it will simply be the story of sodom and gomorrah all over. immorality and sin is what kills many, many people every single day. murder, rape, etc, that's all sin and that's why people live so miserably and die every day. they choose to be sick and sadistic because they choose not to believe in what the bible teaches them. atheists seem content as well; in trying to ruin the joyful and uplifting belief that other's have in god. why do they try so hard to make other's so miserable? - because they're miserable themselves and don't want you reading the bible of which will guide your life into eternal happiness.

now, ik some atheists who flocked to the comfort of religion bc they were lost in their lives & so when i read something like this, i feel like it's very ignorant & im not saying it to insult anyone who believes in this fashion, but more so bc it's hard to believe something you cannot see or feel. before i knew i was agnostic, i considered atheism. i am muslim that comes from a very conservative family so you best believe i watch my mom pray five times a day & fast during the month of ramadan. i do none of this mostly bc i feel like it's disrespecting someone else's belief bc i don't believe that.

as far as it goes to the point where - in a world where the bible didn't exist - i don't think that would be the end of all humanity. w/ law and the bible, we still have rapists, murderer's, child predators, & just very evil people in this world & that's not to say that they all choose to be that way. there are evil people who know what they're doing is wrong & still do it & then there are sick people who know what they're doing is wrong, wants to stop, but goes out there & kills another person; like serial-killers. we'll use charles manson as an example. the most infamous of them all & the most well-known. he lived a relatively juvenile life before being sent to some boys school @ 13 where he claimed to have been sexually abused. grew up to become aggressively antisocial & then went out to lead a cult that killed around thirty-five people i believe? ppl say he's the embodiment of evil but whose to say that if he wasn't abused the way he was when he was younger that he'd be fine? needless to say mental illness is not a joke & it happens to the best of us.

& idk, i think the comment of "atheists seem content as well; in trying to ruin the joyful & uplifting belief that others have in god" line was REALLY insulting. partly bc we don't care who believes in what. perhaps there are atheists or agnostic's who have given you the reason to feel that way, but that doesn't categorize as the whole group of people pointing their fingers @ christian's or catholic's or mormon's or islamic's like "yea, what you believe is stupid & we're going to make you feel like crap by ruining your joy & your reason to believe!" bc that's not true @ all. we're people the same way you're people where a good portion of us will listen to someone talking about religion & follow that up w/ some interesting counterargument bc our views are so different.

overall, we're indifferent to religion in itself. why tell someone who believes not to believe? if someone can consider that there is a god out there w/o blinking twice or hesitating, that's kudos to you bc idk how you do it. in short, atheists or agnostic's don't really give a shit. not the ones ik & not the ones i've met in passing.

as per the concluding part of your article, sunbear, i really, REALLY loved this bc you kind of have to stop & think about it. for someone who can't prove god is there or god is not, sure. life is a bit more carefree. let's smoke, let's drink, let's have sex before we're married or kiss whoever the hell we want & not have to worry about being conservative or blah, blah, blah. but when it comes down to the emotional deterioration of someone's mental health or you find yourself @ the loss of someone who was close to you (such as in death), where do you go from there?

i'll use this perf example: one of my best friends died this year in a horrible car accident & he was a christian which gave me my first experience of attending a memorial service in a church. now listening to all these people who were close to this person talking about how this was "god's plan" & how "god has a plan for all of us & sometimes we leave earlier than others", im sitting there w/ my mind reeling bc im staring @ the casket & the cross hanging from across the way & i want to believe that this is god, but i have no proof & no previous belief.

so when it comes down to free will in choosing what we want to believe or why we do the things we do w/o the thought of god, yes, it could be something that people deal w/ for a certain amount of time, but when the corruption of this world starts to catch up w/ us & we're lost & don't have answers or anyone to turn to, i think it hinders our ability to continue on the way we once have. we're lost more longer than those w/ a heavy hand in faith are - or so that's how i feel

maidahl:

Nietzsche was my high school obsession. Seriously, thanks for this article. Title is pretty eye-catching. Drew me in like a moth. Flame. Yaddyyada

Nietzsche is STILL my obsession

Nietzsche was my high school obsession. Seriously, thanks for this article. Title is pretty eye-catching. Drew me in like a moth. Flame. Yaddyyada

Very well-written and eye-opening article. Great job!

oionigiri:

Wouldn't you say that there's a thin, thin line between genius and insanity, though?
Just because he wasn't "right in the head," so to speak, it doesn't mean his words weren't true. It's come to my attention that sometimes when people aren't plagued by the mundane, they see the world in their own unique ways and speak words that the rest of us wouldn't have thought of in the first place.
I think his whole "God is dead" idea doesn't come from a world where so many people are becoming atheists, but rather, a world where we make the decision to kill and rape with no remorse.
I think the whole God concept is somewhat of a metaphor, as well -- standards being taught to us to do the right things and make the right choices with the guarantee of it all paying off in the end. I think "God dying" represents these standards being lost, rather than us not believing in him in the first place.
Good essay, though.

I totally agree. There is a thin line between genius and insanity. And most people who are closer to that line have much more interesting and thoughtful ideas than those who society considers "normal". Nietzsche is my favourite philosopher for ALL of his works, especially those closer to his mental break. The letters he wrote to his friends when he was going through this break are VERY intriguing, although most of the time make little to no sense.

Very interesting idea you've put forth as well. Although, I feel that those who decide to kill and rape without remorse are much more likely not to believe in God
And I agree. I think that "God dying" represents those standards being lost along with the more literal meaning that people lost their view of God and with that, all of these standards.

Thank you. Very enlightening comment :)

Wouldn't you say that there's a thin, thin line between genius and insanity, though?
Just because he wasn't "right in the head," so to speak, it doesn't mean his words weren't true. It's come to my attention that sometimes when people aren't plagued by the mundane, they see the world in their own unique ways and speak words that the rest of us wouldn't have thought of in the first place.
I think his whole "God is dead" idea doesn't come from a world where so many people are becoming atheists, but rather, a world where we make the decision to kill and rape with no remorse.
I think the whole God concept is somewhat of a metaphor, as well -- standards being taught to us to do the right things and make the right choices with the guarantee of it all paying off in the end. I think "God dying" represents these standards being lost, rather than us not believing in him in the first place.
Good essay, though.

XxSuicideQueenXx:

i believe in god i just don't believe in the bible

This is a very common thought actually, considering God didn't write the bible.

i believe in god i just don't believe in the bible

The Master.:

I was being ironic, showing how...illegitimate such views were.

As for some of those things...are they always set in place by religious views? They could as easily be part of non-religious views. But I see where you are coming from.

I always understood that line as indicating that God himself was man-made so...yeah...

Ohhh! Haha. Text is so hard to read :P

Yes, I see where you're coming from as well...especially now where people actually go out of their way to be distanced from religion. But, I also believe that it was such a big deal before the enlightenment, that most if not all things stem from people's religious views. Although, now that I think about it, I'm sure there were people pre-enlightenment who didn't believe in God, didn't teach their children religious things and some of their customs continue today

I think a lot of people now see God as man-made. :)

Sunber:

I disagree. There are a bunch of serial killers who "kill in the name of God" and so on. People who believe in God still commit crimes, they still get depressed, they just have an underlying thought that God has a plan, or that everything will be okay again. But that does not stop people from being depressed.

Interesting.

Hmm...I feel like I tried to explain this; that socio-economic backgrounds, education etc. have been set in place by religious views already, and so they still affect us. God might be dead (according to Nietzsche), but his views and religion are still ingrained in our society, so we haven't gotten rid of him at all.

I was being ironic, showing how...illegitimate such views were.

As for some of those things...are they always set in place by religious views? They could as easily be part of non-religious views. But I see where you are coming from.

I always understood that line as indicating that God himself was man-made so...yeah...

Zinkesis:

Atheists seem content as well; in trying to ruin the joyful and uplifting belief that other's have in God. Why do they try so hard to make other's so miserable? - Because they're miserable themselves and don't want you reading the Bible of which will guide your life into eternal happiness.

Actually, atheists are SUPPOSED to be rather different than this. The point behind atheists is that they don't believe in God or religion as a whole. They don't go out telling everyone not to believe in God or trying to make people miserable for believing in God or reading the bible. Instead, they are supposed to feel indifferent towards religion and simply do not believe that there is a God.

I do however like your thought that God made the bible as a guideline for us....but there's also things in the bible that we no longer follow and today would find completely offending. Instead, I find it to be a collection of thoughts and stories (either true or false, based on a bias of the person who wrote them in the New Testament) which are meant to help guide us. But, I also believe that we have an inner thought process which tells us what's right and wrong. Some people like the feeling it gives them when they do something wrong. And for some other people, this process is faulty, unfortunately.

The Master.:

Yeah! I mean no theist has ever became depressed, committed crimes or anything like that.

I disagree. There are a bunch of serial killers who "kill in the name of God" and so on. People who believe in God still commit crimes, they still get depressed, they just have an underlying thought that God has a plan, or that everything will be okay again. But that does not stop people from being depressed.

The Master.:

I can't help but feel you have missed the bigger picture. A simple deterministic world which is implied with "God's Plan" means that God could not possibily exist. If all cause and effect has an ultimate common cause i.e. the creation of the universe then God cannot change that law which essentially means God cannot exist in the all mighty format that has been popularised by the major Abrahamic religions. With the advent of the uncertainity principle, modern quantum physics has indicated that cause and effect is not as valid as afore thought and as such, God could possibily exist.

Additionally, does having freedom to choose our own path so free? Are we not constrained by socio-economic backgrounds? By our education? Our intelligence level? Our abilities to comply with authority? Our own personalities? Our genetics? How much freedom and choice do we really have?

Interesting.

Hmm...I feel like I tried to explain this; that socio-economic backgrounds, education etc. have been set in place by religious views already, and so they still affect us. God might be dead (according to Nietzsche), but his views and religion are still ingrained in our society, so we haven't gotten rid of him at all.

v Yeah! I mean no theist has ever became depressed, committed crimes or anything like that.

I find that you may yourself be all fine with reading the Bible and not getting sad but I find it a little disturbing to imply that mental illness is due to a lack of faith. It spits in the eye of every person who has faith but who is also depressed. I also find your comments about atheism rather unpleasant and unfounded.

Very nice article. God had the Bible made as a guideline for our lives. - God does not control us, as he has given us free will; he gave us free will so we could make our own decisions. However, to guide our decisions to keep us from being completely idiotic, immoral beings, he gave us the Bible to teach us the difference between what is right and wrong. Without God and without the Bible, Human-beings will not survive and it will simply be the story of Sodom and Gomorrah all over. Immorality and sin is what kills many, many people every single day. Murder, rape, etc, that's all sin and that's why people live so miserably and die every day. They choose to be sick and sadistic because they choose not to believe in what the Bible teaches them. My life is horrible and difficult on a daily basis, as is many other's, however, since I follow the Bible and believe what it tells me, I've found the ability to be happy every single day; even on the very unpleasant days. I'm content, and I am -not- confused and I am not miserable. Atheists seem content as well; in trying to ruin the joyful and uplifting belief that other's have in God. Why do they try so hard to make other's so miserable? - Because they're miserable themselves and don't want you reading the Bible of which will guide your life into eternal happiness.

I can't help but feel you have missed the bigger picture. A simple deterministic world which is implied with "God's Plan" means that God could not possibily exist. If all cause and effect has an ultimate common cause i.e. the creation of the universe then God cannot change that law which essentially means God cannot exist in the all mighty format that has been popularised by the major Abrahamic religions. With the advent of the uncertainity principle, modern quantum physics has indicated that cause and effect is not as valid as afore thought and as such, God could possibily exist.

Additionally, does having freedom to choose our own path so free? Are we not constrained by socio-economic backgrounds? By our education? Our intelligence level? Our abilities to comply with authority? Our own personalities? Our genetics? How much freedom and choice do we really have?

Not a bad article, it's rather thought provoking but there is an...odd bent to "Atheistic" thinking and the Enlightenment which i don't think is quite accurate. Yes, there was an emphasis on scientific endevour but after that emerged the Romantic and counter-Enlightenment phase which hasn't been given much scope or investigation in your argument. Also, sometimes the tone of the article jumped from formal to a weird jokey tone (especially in what I would term as rather distasteful section on the "craziness" of Nietzche). It was...jarring. I'd maybe go though it again and decide whether you want to write a quirky, fun article about rather complicated theological and philosophical issues or whether you want to make it more formalised and serious.

This was both a very enjoyable, and enlightening article. Good job!