What Nietzsche meant when he said "God is Dead"

[Doubting Thomas]

I have been thinking about this for a while, and I realize that I know it isn't like the whole world is made of atheists, so there are still people who believe in God.  However you can't be a christian like they were 2000 years ago or like they were in the middle ages.  It just isn't as powerfully reinforced by the community like it was back then.  Some places like Texas try to ban the teaching of Evolution in favor of religious propaganda and Florida was like that for a while too, but the kind of Christianity where Jesus is the son of God, born of a virgin died and was resurrected, that is as dead as the samurai. 

You can't be a samurai warrior any more either.  You could try to pledge allegiance to  a person and live by a code, but being a samurai like they were in the middle ages meant being something more than that,  your whole way of life and belief about your purpose in life was reinforced by a huge community that supported this belief system and life style.  People can try all they want to but it will never be like what it was in the middle ages.

Now a days, we have tremendous amounts of scientific explanations for our creation, and the general fact is you can't prove the existence of God.  Back in the middle ages, it was different, people really felt you could prove God existed and they had this huge community they were part of to reinforce their belief system, and even purpose in life.

I think Christianity started to lose its mojo when other religions started getting mixed into the communities.  Also, scientists verified that Christianity as an absolute system that can explain everything, isn't verifiable in some cases and is wrong really in areas like the Sun going around the Earth and everything in the heavens going around the Earth too.   

And that is the way it is.

[Doubting Thomas]

I just thought I would record another thought here as well:

Although not all existentialists' philosophers will agree exactly with different ideas from existentialism, I think all will agree that you can't verify the existence of God, and these religious tenets rob people of their individuality and passion for living life as an authentic person, so it is good that we don't have absolute systems of thought to explain all these different aspects of humanity and the human condition.  There is some mystery to our existence as well, a little bit left for us to figure out.

All the best,

DT

[Lillium]

I'm an existentialist too, DT.  I believe life is all about finding meaning.  Wasn't it Nietzche who said, "God is dead and we killed him"? I'm sorry, my knowledge in philosophy is minimal at best. :/

I agree though, Christianity today is nowhere near what it was a hundred years or more and back.  It's not even the same now as it was 50, even 25 years ago.  It's continually changing.  I think it's changing for the better though.  At least the progressive Christians.  There are some crazy die hard Christians out there. 

[jetson]

Modern humans hit that brick wall of cognitive dissonance - even if they won't admit it - it's in there somewhere.  Science has peeled away layers of ignorance and misunderstanding to the point that not many people can seriously sit around thinking that Bible stories are anything but mythology.  I know the internet keeps the nutters going, but you average person doesn't defend their delusion so disgracefully.

All gods are imaginary.  Bible god has left the building (not that he was ever in it.)

[Straw Man]

but the kind of Christianity where Jesus is the son of God, born of a virgin died and was resurrected, that is as dead as the samurai.

Do you live in the same world I do?

[Doubting Thomas]

but the kind of Christianity where Jesus is the son of God, born of a virgin died and was resurrected, that is as dead as the samurai.

Do you live in the same world I do?

I have been trying to figure that out myself, because you can still be a human and believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, so after reading this book for the third time now, I get what the author was saying here is what they meant:

The kind of Christianity that dominated the political scene and educational institutions that kind of Christianity is dead I missed read what they were saying but I get it now.  The belief in Christ just isn't reinforced by the community like it was back then, forums like this exist and any respectable philosophy department, or anthropology department will tell you that we don't know if Jesus' miracles happened, maybe he was a skilled magician?  Who knows, or they just made it up, and these kinds of discussions are found all throughout western civilization, some people try to live in a bubble, but it just isn't the way it was during the middle ages.

Another thing about these absolute systems, they debase the passions of the human being, and treat our emotions and things we care about as if they are meaningless to us.  When it is in fact the human who should not abdicate his or  her role as a creator of meaning to any absolute system.

Take care,

DT

[Tuor]

What Nietzsche was saying I think is that God is dead in the hearts of modern men, killed by rationalism and science. This same God however, before he became dead to the modern man, had provided the foundation of a "Christian-moral" defining and uniting approach to life as a shared cultural set of beliefs that had defined a social and cutural outlook within which people had lived their lives.

I guess this is essentially what DT was saying, but my 2¢ anyhow.

[nontheocrat]

What Nietzsche was saying I think is that God is dead in the hearts of modern men, killed by rationalism and science. This same God however, before he became dead to the modern man, had provided the foundation of a "Christian-moral" defining and uniting approach to life as a shared cultural set of beliefs that had defined a social and cutural outlook within which people had lived their lives.

I guess this is essentially what DT was saying, but my 2¢ anyhow.

I understand what you are saying, for example any ex-minister (like I am) has learned so much about the Bible, philosophy and biblical history that it is very hard to retain faith. In fact most ministers I've ever talked to do not believe in the snake-oil they are selling. I have been quoted many times on Twitter for saying that if the laymen knew what the pastors know, then the churches in America would be empty.

However, I think that while Nietzche's observation may be true for the philosopher, the scientist and the theologian; it is not at all true for the average member of the Christian congregations in America. Certainly not the Christian Fundamentalists I am so familiar with in my neck of the woods. For them, the have the complete all-life-encompassing truth that is inerrant and certain as it ever was.

This is one of the greatest ironies of our modern world.