The Madman - God is Dead - Nietzsche

Joyful Wisdom, aphorism 125

The Madman.--Have you ever heard of the madman who on a bright morning lighted a lantern and ran to the market-place calling out unceasingly: "I seek God! I seek God!"--As there were many people standing about who did not believe in God, he caused a great deal of amusement. Why! is he lost? said one. Has he strayed away like a child? said another. Or does he keep himself hidden? Is he afraid of us? Has he taken a sea-voyage? Has he emigrated?--the people cried out laughingly, all in a hubbub. The insane man jumped into their midst and transfixed them with his glances. " Where is God gone? " he called out. "I mean to tell you! We have killed him,--you and I! We are all his murderers! But how have we done it? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the whole horizon? What did we do when we loosened this earth from its sun? Whither does it now move? Whither do we move? Away from all suns? Do we not dash on unceasingly? Backwards, sideways, forewards, in all directions? Is there still an above and below? Do we not stray, as through infinite nothingness? Does not empty space breathe upon us? Has it not become colder? Does not night come on continually, darker and darker? Shall we not have to light lanterns in the morning? Do we not hear the noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we not smell the divine putrefaction?--for even Gods
putrefy! God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife,--who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely to seem worthy of it? There never was a greater event,--and on account of it, all who are born after us belong to a higher history than any history hitherto!"--Here the madman was silent and looked again at his hearers; they also were silent and looked at him in surprise. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, so that it broke in pieces and was extinguished. "I come too early," he then said, "I am not yet at the right time. This prodigious event is still on its way, and is travelling,--it has not yet reached men's ears. Lightning and thunder need time, the light of the stars needs time, deeds need time, even after they are done, to be seen and heard. This deed is as yet further from them than the furthest star,--and yet they have done it!"--It is further stated that the madman made his way into different churches on the same day, and there intoned his Requiem aeternam deo. When led out and called to account, he always gave the reply: "What are these churches now, if they are not the tombs and monuments of God?"--

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[ruzickaw]

this reading is for children

[sheert]

@ruzickaw Then was there again spoken unto me without voice: "Thou must yet become a child, and be without shame."

[doctorw2]

every time i read this parable of the mad man tears stream from my eyes becuase we all have killed GOD through indifference and wretched self complacency. GOD is no longer a light in the latern of peoples hearts and souls.

[sheert]

@doctorw2 It's very interesting when people of belief find meaning in Nietzsche. I would have thought Kierkegaard would have been easier to digest? I also want to clarify Nietzsche's position- he doesn't mean to imply there ever was a God in the normal sense. I read the parable as the "concept of God" is dead. As Nietzsche said: "God is a thought- it maketh all the straight crooked, and all that standeth reel." Also the parable is aimed at the many who "do not believe in God". Interesting!

[doctorw2]

@sheert i love nietzsche i understand what he was really trying to say there is no such thing as GOD in the normal sense GOD is thought a conceptual being beyond good and evil is love and what nietzsche is impliying in this parable is that people have killed the love of GOD with religious formalism,indiffrence to social change or justice, and living a life of mediocrity. the mad man is symbolic of someone who is seeking the love of GOD as a living principle in the lives of people.

[sheert]

@doctorw2 You might know about this already, but check out William Blake, particularly the section with the first line "I stood among my valleys of the south". It's one of the best expressions of what you said, IMHO.

[MrNobody47710]

Rather devastating, but the gradual decline of the ideological tyranny of strict (i.e., traditional) Christianity gives the sensation of losing a weight from my chest. My breathing feels cleaner and fuller, and I feel as though I have more control of myself: my arms have a full range of movement and the life-preserving/giving particles of air freely flow into me, at my pace.

The death of the absolute ideal is sad, but the gained freedom, and new-found truth-seeking potential, is exhilarating.

[giorgiv18]

Hello, Arnold, didn't now terminator was into philosophy.

[SHITCAKES4U]

what?! 8o ? atheism exists?? no way? the earth is not flat????? my word! The West is still here AND in power??? you don't say...

[MrNobody47710]

"Joyful Wisdom"

...

"La Gaya Scienza"

...

[Romansteel13]

The words of a genius, uttered by a fool.

[george120050]

It should be easy to understand Christianity and Islam are the worst ideas in the history of the earth, for fuck's sake they caused dark ages that last hundreds of years. Nothing else has been that harmful to progress, not the plague, not mass genocides of the last century, nothing, those two monotheistic religions stand alone as the worst events in earth's history. Dark ages also show us that progress is not ensured by evolution, it's up to our will. If it were evo, no dark age could occur.

[george120050]

@PokeyMeansBusiness Our cultural tradition says faith is a virtue, which is garbage, it's a vice, accepting stuff with no proof is stupidity, gullibility and worse. Our values are morals unfortunately, which means our values aren't carefully considered they're just inherited. Christianity says weakness is a virtue, that's 100% wrong, it's a vice. Strength is valuable. Your question is would I do something untraditional to get what I want, my answer is of yes course, but what I want is virtuous.

[george120050]

I have non Christian, non monotheistic values, the values the world had before Christianity started a dark age which we're still struggling to get out of linguistically and culturally ... values Athens and Rome had, strength, courage, ambition, lots of good values are available. To call oneself an immoralist is to precisely call oneself an anti traditionalist. To do something immoral, is to do something untraditional. Moral does not mean value, it's just tradition, as in morays.

[george120050]

@PokeyMeansBusiness Reread what I wrote. I wrote morals are usually bad, since moral means what is usual, customary, traditional. Words don't convey the meaning you want, they are meaning, they're their own etymology, they don't connote they denote. Since moral means customary, any reasonable person will agree, morals aren't necessarily good. This is why Nietzsche called himself an immoralist. People need to learn to question what they take for granted, not say what I think is good, is good.

[PokeyMeansBusiness]

@george120050

So, what "values" do you hold?

Would you do something immoral in today's culture to get what you want?