The important thing to remember about Nietzsche and the infamous “God is dead” quote, which I’m pretty sure appears first in the Gay Science and not Geneology of Morals, is that the man who claims that “God is dead and we have killed him” is in despair because he doesn’t know what comes next. The other atheists laugh at him, but they don’t quite realize what it is that is bothering him. The idea of God reenforced the idea that the human soul, and thus the human being, was important. Thus without God, we might have to just “become God” (figuratively) in order to reasure ourselves we have value. If not, were drifting toward nihilism.

It is the crisis of the human condition after the Enlightenment: what does the human being do when he/she no longer have rational belief. Kierkegaard argues that a human being has to take an irrational leap of faith, while Nietzsche argues we need to undertake a reevaluation of our values, and perhaps create a new basis for value.

Nietzsche also makes reference to Plato’s cave, mentioning that man continued to return to the “shadows” a reference to the fact that even though man has seen the light (in this case that there is no God), he keeps on returning to the principles of religion, even if not faith, because he has not established new basis for human importance.

And I totalyl agree xcwillix on socialist principles inherent in the Bible especially the life of Jesus. Jesus shared everything with the poor, including the table at which there were his society’s outcasts. He said turn the other cheeck. How does that compare to Bush’s oil dynasty, especially considering his comment that Jesus Christ “changed his heart.” This is the strange thing about religion. It can be used to justify anything. Unfortunately.

God made the world, the air the earth and all life… He destroyed the world, only to re-create it , and even sent his Son to set us all straight so there would be no more questions ? So how is it that we cannot grasp the idea that God could not make a book, and keep the message inside his own…

So thats that —

Now if you read the Bible - more specifically the new testiment , how can you bash socialism, when it is without a doubt a focal point in Jesus’ teachings. When jesus said love your enemies, I dont remember him excluding Muslims, or Jews, or any other person.

I am done….

And “the antiquated good book predates and therefore sets precedence.”? Let me ask you this ash: who decided which gospels to include in the New Testament? The Church Council, that’s who. This book did not magically fall from the sky, written by the huge hand of God himself. This book was composed by human beings after Jesus’ death and numerous gospels did not make it into the BIble/. Again, organized Church hierarchy CHOSE which gospels to include. And now we are supposed to believe this was God’s act which automaticlaly presuspposes that we believe that organized Church itself is God’s only representative on earth. Which is of course what the organized Church ahs always wanted us to believe so they can preserve their power.

Ash, you gotta look behind the curtains, behind the facades, and question things. Of course I bring up Nietzsche…He is wonderful.

On katrina: it was a christian disaster relief team that cleaned debri from 59 south in MS. Without the work of these volunteer christians a lot of aid would have been delayed. These people were the first to get in after the storm passed. It wasn’t a group of concerned socialist but christians so take that for whatever its worth.

We tried to give our stuff to the international red cross but they wanted too much paper work. Inventory it, stack it, move it, restack it, sign this in triplicate and “would you like to donate to the internation red cross?”. We instead donated to the Bethany Baptist Church of slidell LA since they had members who were stuck in neighborhoods that rescue crews had not gotten to. We watched the deacons load the water up and go. We were the answer to thier payers and let me tell you, there is nothing more moving than realizing that your actions were prayed for on the day you decided to take action. Dig?

A woman tried to help us find a place to camp (the city was off limits at night). This woman was living in a tent herself. She had lost everything she owned and was worried about us. Another horrible christian.

Good people abound in the US. They come together when bad things happen. Don’t belittle the beliefs of the christian majority when you are blind to thier actions. Its not fair.

And you know, if you pay attention, @#$ing the poor does not pass the shaving test. You try it some time. Stand in front of the mirror while you are shaving and say out loud “Today I will @#$# the poor.”. It doesn’t work.

When Nietzsche said, in his Geneaology on Morals, that God is dead, he said it after giving a brilliant analysis of the way humans construct religion and their beliefs. He did not mean this in necessarily a negative way. He was simply saying that God is the creation of Man and after each stage we destroy the idols we worshipped in order to create new ones. There was no value judgment in it. And calling Nietzsche a socialist would of course be preposterous.

But for the record: I am a liberal social-democrat on the European political spectrum (for those wondering whatta hell this means, and I gotta admit I wonder that myself, they believe in: parliamentary democracy, the existence of social welfare state, like France and Germany, and advocate workers’ rights, including the right to unionize and right to healthcare).

And speaking of Katrina ash, this tragedy really riles me up: tonight I was watching this humanitarian world medical volunteer association helping these poor people who have no health insurance. They can’t get treamtent for diabetes, high blood pressure; one woman came in with a heart attack! Now consider this carefully: this is happening in the “richest and freest” nation in the world, which is currently run by a crowd which loves to toute the Bible and call itself Christians. How in the world do you explain this? Or are you just going to label me a socialist again and thus not articulate a reasonable argument?

Fyodor

You ARE cranky. Perfect for this site.

I was in LA after katrina at no cost to you. I’m a consevative christian. Label that.