File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_1995/nietzsche_Feb.95.8-15, message 23


Date: Wed, 08 Feb 1995 19:07:10 -0500 (EST)
From: "May the flow with you go, always" <61DOWLER-AT-CUA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Timetable of death of God



Of course we have to be very careful of acting in this way,
as if the issue were wether or not there are Christians around
or whether they are "alive and well". The "death of God" is 
intended niether as good news, nor as a form of blaming aimed
at some group that has failed morally (the fact that the "so
called beleivers" "wish to hold some group respondible" is
quite beside the point. Nietsche wasn't slinging mud, he was
pointing out the totatal bankruptcy of out culture. Blame
implies a not living up to standards. The revaluation of all
values Nietzsche spoke of (and I'm speculating here) seems ot
me to be a claim that the standard themselves have become
meaningless (not because of theory, but because they have ceased
to have any meaning IN PRACTICE).

Anyway, this is something more fundamental than the question of
what group of beleivers one happens to belong to, but rather a
questioning about what it means that one might be a 'beleiver' at
all, and a considerable challenge to anyone that thinks being
a 'beleiver' is at all meaningful.

Of course if the critique is that radical, it calls for an equally
radical desire to reply to it (perhaps by examing ones own
beleifs?) on the part of belivers AND non-beleivers. Doesn't the
"death of God" put everyone in the same boat. Does it matter what
your religion is in this context?

Tony Dowler.

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