Is God Dead?

Yesterday a friend recommended that I read the poem 'Parable of a Madman' by Friedrich Nietzsche.

My first response was "WOW" It's powerful. I haven't read anything by Nietzsche before, have read about him, but not his actual writings until today. The man is a wordsmith.

Here is the poem, and below that are my thoughts.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Parable of the Madman (1882)

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!" -- As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated? -- Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

"How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us -- for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto."

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. "I have come too early," he said then; "my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars -- and yet they have done it themselves.

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: "What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"

[Source: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (1882, 1887) para. 125; Walter Kaufmann ed. (New York: Vintage, 1974), pp.181-82.]

My Reaction:

I read it, thought about it and I loved it.

The man is a wordsmith, I love love love this bit ...

"But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun?"

So much passion, and also the idea that we took what we wanted and destroyed ourselves in the process.

And this bit ...

"Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose."

I wonder what he would think now, if he could look around the world. I think he would have to agree that the aroma of divine decomposition is pungent.

I agree with him.

Not that God is dead, I'll never agree to that.

But for many people, in their minds, God is dead. And they were the ones who killed Him. They killed the "straw-god," a false conception of God that never existed, set up by the devil to turn the hearts of man to hate the idea of God. And in destroying this false god they assume they killed the real God.

Therefore they are God's murderers. They put themselves in the place of God's judge, jury and executioner. They judged God worthy of death, so they killed Him. To deem that you have the ability to judge another you put yourself into a position above that person. Therefore God's murderers made themselves bigger than God. they made themselves to be God's God.

I think if Nietzsche was here now that he would say the madman's time has come. People have heard the news of the 'grand event,' that we have of made ourselves God. The lightning and the thunder have both arrived. They came with the light of the stars and the stench of divine decomposition. In our day and age people glory in their own 'godlike' power, and everybody does what they think is right in their own 'godly' eyes.

As to churches being the tombs and sepulchers of God, that I take on a case by case basis. Some churches are definitely places where the dead straw-god is venerated. But some churches contain the spirit of the living God, and from those churches will come fire. God, the real living God will 'resurrect' from the ashes of the false and in the body of His people will fill the world with light.

And then the end will come.

That's what I think.

And I know 'resurrect' is the wrong word, because God was not dead, but I can't think of the right one, and it does fit the parable.

Also I feel sad for Nietzsche, he recognised that the false god popularly worshiped was dead. He saw the logical conclusion that as a result every man must be his own god, and he also saw the hopelessness and joylessness behind that position. Once you get over the intoxication of the feeling of your own godlike power all that is left is to recognise that in actuality all people are powerless. We steer our little lives in an ocean of uncertainty, purposelessness, and meaninglessness. We live out a biological animalistic rhythm, we die, eternity goes on with out us and nothing changes. Eventually our sun explodes, humanity goes extinct and nobody remembers. Basically we are a cosmic accident waiting to expire.

Unless...

Unless there really is something bigger, something outside of ourselves to give meaning and purpose. 

Unless there really is a real living God who knows us intimately, who loves, cares, guides and promises to be with us always. Who gives our days eternal purpose and our lives infinite meaning.

Unless death is not an end but merely a comma marking the transition from this mortal half life to full immortality for those who seek, love, trust and surrender to the real living unkillable God who created the universe we inhabit.

Unless...

I'm here to tell you there really is, I've met Him, and He is glorious. 

Or maybe I should say I've seen the threads on the edge of the hem of his cloak, because who can know God, that is the goal of eternity. But He has touched my life gloriously, and He continues to do so in a thousand ways daily. To seek, love, trust, and continually surrender to Him brings meaning and purpose to this current half life and promises hope and joy into eternity.

God is most definitely not dead. He is alive and He is magnificent.