Posted elsewhere on the Internet in another guise, but I thought it good enough to repeat here.
“They have got rid of the Christian God, and now feel obliged to cling all the more firmly to Christian morality; that is English consistency….
Christian morality is a command: its origin is transcendental; it is beyond all criticism, all right to criticize; it possesses truth only if God is truth – it stands or falls with the belief in God. – If the English really do believe they will know, of their own accord, ‘intuitively,’ what is good and evil; if they consequently think they no longer have need of Christianity as a guarantee of morality; that is merely the consequence of the ascendancy of Christian evaluation and an expression of the strength and depth of this ascendancy…”
- Nietzsche, “Twilight of the Idols”
What is most interesting about this passage is that Nietzsche is indirectly saying that those who are most critical of Christianity but presuppose Judeo-Christian norms are, in a sense, more deeply accepting of Christianity than they would like to admit.
Which raises an interesting question – are those who are proclaimed secularists in actuality agreed on such norms? It would seem that the emphasis on rights, on the freedom to speak and worship, actually has a lot to do with the potential for evangelism for any cause. It would also seem that the crusade for such things as political correctness, or saving the environment, or keeping the rich from getting richer have a lot to do with getting rid of feeling guilty for being “intolerant” or “powerful” merely by virtue of existing. This could be interpreted as a form of guilt for merely being human acting itself out in our society today.
Even those who claim we can explain all physical and moral phenomena via evolution might be acting out something in accordance with this “weak form” of Christianity that might exist. After all, to say that our nature is contingent on how we respond to our environs, environs that are not exactly gentle, is to pretty much say that since the world is fallen, we must be fallen too.
Your thoughts and responses are most welcome. Is this an accurate way of viewing the opponents of the established and traditional?
- Thoughts on Nietzsche, Science and Politics
- Notes on Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra” – “On the New Idol”
- Towards a Nietzschean Understanding of Politics: Notes on "The Case of Wagner" (Part 1)
- Towards a Nietzschean Understanding of Politics: Notes on "The Case of Wagner" (Part 2)
- Towards a Nietzschean Understanding of Politics: Notes on "The Case of Wagner" (Part 3)
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I like this one.