Nietzsche

10 Pages 2488 Words

eek’ all his life because he fears confrontation, will be rewarded in ‘The Kingdom of God’. What exactly is it that he will be rewarded for? Subservience and fear – the basic structure around which Christianity is built. It does not seem to make any sense when thought about logically. It “resembles in a gruesome manner a continual suicide of reason” (Cowan 60).
What is it that Christian faith requires man to sacrifice? Nietzsche would tell you that it makes men sacrifice all that is essential to analytical thinking, and goes even beyond that. What is even more striking is the “rationality” used by Christians to explain the reasons for these sacrifices. It is a most difficult proposition to prove the cause and effect that making these sacrifices would have. Why must a man suffer through “solitude, fasting, and sexual abstinence”? (Cowan 61). Why are these things so essential to the structure of religion? It seems that in the spiritual realm, which we cannot be a part of nor even see until we are there, these sacrifices will be rewarded. These sacrifices, which ask men to ignore their own instincts and to ignore all that which brings them pleasure, are necessary for prosperity in this spiritual realm. Even as I hear the words being said, I cannot find any reason to believe them. Whether they come off the lips of Pope John Paul II, or perhaps the lips of a homeless man who has gone mad with hunger and knows no success on Earth, but believes that he will be justly rewarded in Heaven, when he is seated next to God. The message from both men is the same: Deny all that which comes naturally to you, and you are holy; act upon these emotions and instincts that your God himself put in you, and you are blasphemous. One should not dare ask for proof of this, for it will be demonstrated after you leave this temporary world. Your faith in this, must appease all of your uncertainties of the future.
One mig...