Nietzsche And Feuerbach On The Creation Of God

Nietzsche and Feuerbach on the creation of God

In section 22 of the second essay of “The Genealogy of Morals,” Nietzsche argues that guilt towards God is the most horrific self-torture man engagesin. The will to power that has been turn inwards by societal constraints, manifests itself in man’s willingness to hurt himself by creating an ideal—the holy God—which is beyond man’s reach. For Godis the antithesis of man’s animal instincts. Thus, God becomes the infinite source of man’s guilt without hope of reprieve. According to this account, man has created God in order to feel guilty abouthis animal instincts (which he cannot escape). Nietzsche thinks that this self-abuse man incurs in is a proof of his sickness. In section 23, he compares the European man’s use of God as a source ofguilt and punishment with the way Greeks used their gods. The Greek gods, which represented the ideal of man’s animal instincts, were used to keep bad conscience at bay. The Greeks, according toNietzsche used their gods to justify their crimes (“a god must have confused him”) and to evade guilt.
I think that Nietzsche’s discussion of the use of gods in modern Europe and ancient Greece can beinterpreted through the lens of Feuerbach’s theory of the origin of deities. Feuerbach believed that gods were a projection of humans’ ideal for themselves. In the case of the Greeks, their godsrepresented the pinnacle of man’s animal instincts. Greek society had not been affected by the sickness of repressing man’s will to power. Modern Europeans, however, created their god based on the idealthey pursued—the tamed man—but could not reach. For this reason, the Judeo-Christian God was a source of guilt for modern Europeans whose essence was at odds with the God they revered. Feuerbach thoughtthat when humans recognized their own infinite capacities, which was the purpose of religion, gods would no longer be necessary. I think Nietzsche would find it necessary to dispense with slave...