Criticism of Christianity by Nietzsche

Running head: CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY BY NIETZSCHE
Criticism of Christianity by Nietzsche
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY BY NIETZSCHE1
Introduction
Friedrich Nietzsche was the philosopher and the cultural critic of Germany whose
writings have made tremendous influence on the Western philosophy along with the
intellectual history. The famous philosopher have talked about “death of God” and he
foresaw dissolution of the traditional religion along with the metaphysics (Brown 2017). He
embraced the nihilism and he was instrumental in promoting literary exploration of human
condition. Nietzsche was involved in the positive program that reaffirmed life and he asked
for naturalistic thinking in relation to nature of the human existence. The naturalism
embodied in Nietzsche made him sceptical regarding efficacy of the reasons along with the
arguments. He wanted to free the higher human beings from the aspect of the false
consciousness. This essay argues that Nietzsche was critical of the tenets of Christianity as
he was sceptical about the teachings of Church.
Discussion
Nietzsche have earned reputation of being audacious of the assassins of God and he
wanted to reclaim divinity from the inside. The views of Nietzsche on Christianity have been
formed with the help of Zeitgeist of his time. He had a religious scepticism imbibed within
him which was voiced by the philosophers like the Feuerbach along with the Schopenhauer.
There were momentous discoveries made during this time that created the way for notion of
“death of God” (Strong 2019). The beliefs of Copernicus who was Christian revolutionary
changed direction pertaining to human thought. There were other intellectuals in the society
like Galileo, Newton along with the Charles Darwin who joined army of the “involuntary
assassins” that created the way for the formation of the mind set along with the beliefs of
Nietzsche.

CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY BY NIETZSCHE2
Nietzsche was of the opinion that all the religions in the world was founded on the
basis of the “holy lie” and can be stated to be product of the priest craft. He conceives of
Christianity to be the worst of the religions where the priest acts as author of moral code. The
priest makes the community members think that the events which touches them are
conditioned by the laws of the morality along with the religion which is known to priest
(Turner 2019). He tries to extend the power among the people in the society by promising the
life beyond the death of the individuals in the society. The Christian priest makes the people
believe that course of the things are governed by the supernatural law instead of the natural
causes. He divorces the judgements of the good and the evil from that of the natural objects.
Nietzsche thinks that new values are imposed on the humanity and they are given the
supernatural sanction by the people in the power in the society. He used to undermine the old
values along with the techniques and he wanted the revaluation of the values in the society. It
creates the way for “famous conscience” that measures value of the action not by the dint of
the consequences but with the help of its intention (Gemes 2019). The priest of the Christian
moral order appeals to that of herd instinct against the strong people who want to stand
separate from that of the group. He makes use of the resentment along with the jealousy of
the people for building up of a powerful movement. According to Nietzsche, priest enters in
the form of a counsellor and the helper for the establishment of his power in a more firm
manner. He cannot be said to be true physician and he removes the symptoms only but is not
able to cure the disease of the people (Siljak 2018). The kind of the consolation which is
provided by the Christian priest can be deemed to be unreal and the perceptions of the priest
have an evil effect on the people. The priest of Christianity exploits emotional sensitivity of
the followers in a manner that is morbid. Nietzsche have brought out in “The Genealogy of
Morals” that:

CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY BY NIETZSCHE3
"If one intends it to convey that such a system of treatment has reformed man, I shall not
contradict him, but I shall add that for me 'reformed' means just the same as 'tamed',
'weakened', 'discouraged', 'refined', 'coddled', 'emasculated'. When however, you have to deal
in the main with the ill, the depressed, the oppressed, then such a system, even if it has made
the ill man 'better', under all circumstances makes him more ill.” (Gutenberg.org. 2020).
It goes on to show the immense hatred that Nietzsche harboured for the Christian
priests and for the religion Christianity. He feels that these kind of the practices are
reprehensible and the priests takes recourse to the wrong tactics for establishing his
dominance among the community.
Nietzsche have asserted that the miserable and the moral people in the society are not strong
but they are actually weak. He thinks that morality is essentially negative in the society which
arises on account of the resentment against the privileged aristocratic class in the society
(Santaniello 2017). The ideal of the morality can be said to be an ascetic one that have been
found to be hostile to the life.
Nietzsche have been critical of the characteristic statement of Jesus which is “The
kingdom of God is within you”. He have tried to talk about physio-psychological approach
and about the inner feelings of the pleasure along with the self-affirmation. Nature of the
“truth” which have been proclaimed by the Jesus is not significant for Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche thinks that the inner truth is flight from the reality and it is motivated by the
unhealthy psychological condition (Losurdo 2020). It cannot be described in the precise
manner as it is devoid of any kind of the reality. Nietzsche thinks that “kingdom of God” is
pathologically conditioned escape into a state of the nothingness that acts for the benefit of
beings like the Jesus Christ. Tendency of the followers of Jesus Christ have been denounced
by Friedrich Nietzsche and he feels that the inner state of the human beings are divorced from