Friedrich Nietzsche is an Empiricist much like David Hume. Nietzsche is a Darwinist. He believes that virtue is largely misunderstood among religious people and that religious people will go against their instincts to preserve themselves in order to serve or help others, allowing for the survival of the weakest as opposed to the survival of the fittest. Because of his abhorrent behavior towards virtues and natural law commonly accepted among religious believers, Nietzsche especially hates Christianity. Nietzsche’s hate for Christians is clearly displayed in his book The Anti-Christ. In his book, Nietzsche discusses many “fallacies” or “inconsistencies” that he says Christianity teaches. Two of Nietzsche’s most significant arguments against Christianity is that there are no real Christians except for The One Who died on the Cross and that Christians have misinterpreted their feelings and made them into social morals that only serve to hurt and deter the natural order of the universe. Nietzsche is wrong in his view towards Christianity, and he has wrongly accused the belief system of Christianity and all Christians throughout history.
Nietzsche first claims there are no real Christians when he says, “In reality, there has only been one Christian, and He died on the Cross,” noting later , “In fact, there have been no Christians at all. The ‘Christian’, that which has been called Christian for nearly two millennia is merely a psychological self-misunderstanding” (Nietzsche 163). What Nietzsche is saying here is that that anyone who calls themselves a Christian is completely deceived because none of them can follow perfectly what they “believe” or live up to the “perfect” standard which Christ has set. Nietzsche’s take on Christianity being unattainable in its standards can be seen when he writes, “Not a belief but a doing, above all a not-doing of many things, a different being.” (Nietzsche, 163)What Nietzsche fails to realize is that just because someone does not follow a philosophy perfectly does not mean that they do not believe in the philosophy or accept the philosophy as truth. The fact that someone did not follow the philosophy perfectly means that they simply were not perfect. He should understand that humans are not perfect given that he believes we are unfinished products of evolution. Nietzsche also does not recognize the example and faith of martyrs. He makes the statement that believing is about doing and that no one can believe fully in Christianity and live up to Christ’s example, but martyrs have believed and followed the example of Christ so closely that they even died the same death as Him.
Nietzsche then goes on to say that Christians have misunderstood their feelings and live in a world in which they completely forget reality as if Christians have wrongly convinced themselves that their beliefs are true. Nietzsche’s belief that Christians live in a sort of “make belief” world can be seen when he writes, “The Christian’s world of ideas contains nothing which so much as touches upon actuality: on the other hand, we have recognized in instinctive hatred for actuality the driving element, the only driving element in the roots of Christianity.” (Nietzsche, 163) He then goes further to say that personal immorality is a sham when he says, “The great lie of personal immorality destroys all rationality, all naturalness of instinct – all that is salutary, all that is life-furthering, all that holds a guarantee of the future in the instincts henceforth excites mistrust.” (Nietzsche, 168) Nietzsche hates the idea of virtue and personal immorality simply because it will cause the strong to help the weak instead of letting them die off “naturally,” and he blames Christianity for this “unnatural” way of life in which the weak band together.
Nietzsche, as stated above, is an Empiricist. He believes only in what he can see, and he only takes what he can see at its face value. He does not look for any deeper meaning to anything in the natural world. Therefore, he claims that things such as God and morality are not real and clings to the belief that Darwinian evolution is the only logical and rational explanation for the beginning of the universe. He also believes that Darwinian evolution is the only way to explain why humans operate the way that they do. His belief in the universe being a product of Darwinian evolution has led him to conclude that there is no truth and that everything is relative. Nietzsche’s “empirical” belief in a naturalistic worldview would make sense if his belief was actually empirical. No one can see evolution happening and no one saw the beginning of the universe making his empirical belief not very empirical. Therefore, Nietzsche exhibits faith in the same capacity as the Christian. Nietzsche claims to believe that there is no such thing as truth, yet he believes in his own truth about the beginning and operation of the universe and does not realize it. He blames the Christian for what he himself does, and what Nietzsche fails to realize here is that faith is inevitable no matter what we as humans claim to be true because everyone believes in something. He also does not recognize that everything in the universe is set up in order. Everything that happens has happened because it was set into motion and everything operates together. Knowing that the universe is set up in this orderly fashion makes it very irrational to believe nothing is deeper than face value.
Nietzsche gets quite upset and hates Christianity a lot for it to be a lie. Nietzsche’s belief in only what he can see is unreasonable given that he cannot see evolution taking place and he cannot prove that evolution is the origin of the universe. Ultimately, neither God nor evolution can be empirically proven, though there is also reasonable evidence for each case. Each person must look at the evidence for themselves and reasonably conclude their own belief on the matter because the will drives reason and the will should drive each person to conclude what is true. I personally disagree with Nietzsche and believe, as a Christian, that God is real and that it is much more reasonable to conclude so, but to each his own.
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