Nietzsche,s claim God is Dead

[rcampb]

Why did Nietzsche think that the death of God was such a major crisis for modern society. He argues that the loss of belief in God means that our whole moral system and values which were based on belief in God are now undermined. But I don't see why that should be. Famous moral and value systems such as Aristotles ethics, utilitarianism, and Stoicism are secular value systems and are not based on belief in a god. Loss of belief in God may create a feeling of anxiety or a feeling that the world is absurd, without any transcendent meaning. But I don't understand why Nietzsche thinks this is such a crisis or really significant event. Buddhism does not believe in a god. Thinkers like Camus have embraced the absurdity of human existence.

[Alan Masterman]

Philosophically speaking, you are right. But sociogically speaking, you are wrong. Nietszche lived in an age when the vast majority were religious believers, remember. So for that vast majority, the crisis would indeed be as Nietszche describes it. But the crisis never eventuated, because it didn't hit them all at once. It developed slowly, over a number of decades, and its development is still not complete today.

[Alan Masterman]

By chance, the other day, I came across a copy of R J Hollingdale's "Nietzsche" in a secondhand shop. The book was a revelation to me. I am inclined to think that Hollingdale is possibly the ONLY commentator who really comes close to understanding Nietzshe, on account of his enormous scholarship and familiarity with his life and times. Nietzsche is far less "outrageous" than is commonly supposed. He just saw through the sham of 19th C religiosity and the German bourgeois "morality" more clearly than anyone else.

[JDBowden]

... Nietszche lived in an age when the vast majority were religious believers, remember. ...

Globally, we still are very much so religious based. So to say "were," we cannot. People would lose their mierda if it were revealed they have been wrong all this time. Complete destruction as their "guidance" has therefore been eliminated. It would very much so be a huge deal.