Feuerbach and Nietzsche's Theories on God's Existence

The existence of God is a subject that will never actually be proven; however, some philosophers try to come up with arguments for and against it. They use these arguments to try to convince readers and even "religious persons" of their thoughts. Two main philosophers who struggled with this debate are Ludwig Feuerbach and Friedrich Nietzsche. In this paper, I will talk about each of these individuals' reasons for denying the existence of God and the different impacts each sees belief in God having on people.

Ludwig Feuerbach was a philosopher and anthropologist. His most popular work is The Essence of Christianity; this is where I will base my findings of his arguments from. Feurerbach had some interesting theories and observations that he used against the existence of God. His arguments are best described as his effort to "humanize theology." He says religion is "nothing else than the consciousness of the infinity of the consciousness; or, in the consciousness of the infinite, the conscious subject has for his object the infinity of his own nature." ( http://www.nndb.com/people/964/00094682). This is mainly saying that God is nothing more to man than "man." He claims later "Man first of all sees his nature as if out of himself, but before he finds it in himself." Since God is of the consciousness of human beings, he is part of human beings; yet Feuerbach also defines the divine being as "... nothing else than the human being...purified". ( Essence of Christianity pg.378). When using this definition he gives God positive qualities; however, because, as he claims, there is no God there cannot be given any qualities to Him.

"But that, which has no predicates or qualities, has no effect upon me; that which has no effect upon me has no existence for me. To deny all the qualities of a being is equivalent to denying the being himself. A being without qualities is one which cannot become an object to the mind..."

However, the religious claim to define God as indescribable as He is indescribable to humans. Feuerbach claims that in order to talk about God, we must have characteristics to talk about him with- even the most religious of individuals can agree that God cannot be described, being "one of a kind" as some may say. He claims that individuals make up the existence of God by using these characteristics/qualities one gives to God to show what they should shoot for or to be like in their every day lives.

Another reason Feuerbach gives for denying the existence of God, is that his claims the religious individuals make up the idea of God because the individuals think of themselves as sin. This is especially true with those religious that believe in the concept of "original sin." From a young age they are told that they are born bad and need to find a way for goodness to be in their lives. According to Feuerbach, human beings yearn for this goodness so they make up this concept of God. On page 382, he says,

"Religion further denies goodness as a quality of human nature; man is wicked, corrupt, incapable of good; but, on the other hand, God is only good- the Good Being. Man's nature demands that goodness is an essential tendency of man..."

He says that either goodness does not exist or it's revealed within a person; within the human nature of individuals. This argument is all summed up with a statement I made in my notes from the lecture on 2/21. Human beings are "...taught to think of themselves as crap, so they need something to give hope to get that all-loving and all-forgiving feeling."

The last argument I will talk about of Feuerbach is his idea that God is a projection. He claims that God is a projection of our "deep-seated anxieties." He says that the reason man created God was to help human beings cope with their insecurities and/or fears we may have. These fears may include death and the afterlife. He says on page 380,

"Religion is that conception of the nature of the world and of man which is essential to, i.e., identical with, a man's nature. But man does not stand above this his necessary conception...it stands above him; it animates, determines, governs him."

With the thought of God being a projection of ourselves, we cannot doubt God because then we would doubt ourselves; doubt may be thought of here as self-consciousness, but at the beginning of his article he says "Consciousness of God is self-consciousness, knowledge of God is self-knowledge."

Feuerbach makes some logical arguments on his existence of God, but I will now determine some of the arguments that Friedrich Nietzsche makes on the same concept

Nietzsche, too, was a philosopher and had an overall very negative notion of Christianity in religion. The difference with him compared to other atheists is he believed

"...there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross.' He went on to describe Christ as someone who had showed mankind how to live. But while he appeared to acknowledge some value in the example of Christ as a human being"

He says that Christianity is then not based off of the concept of God, because there is no God, but the concept of other subjects; He uses these as his reasons for why God must not be existent.

His first claim is that Christianity is a religion for "wimps." He says that Christianity teaches one to identify/pity with the weak to understand and to be able to help those that are suffering. When we feel this connection to those who are suffering, Nietzsche says, it is contagious to the one who is doing the consulting. He says "active pity for all the failures and all the weak....[is what] Christianity [is]." Pity has a depressing effect on our lives; on our relationship; on our souls. The strength that we could feel Nietzsche argues, we lose when we feel this pity towards others. Pity

"...defends those who have been disinherited and condemned by life; and by the abundance of the failures of all kinds which it keeps alive, it gives life itself a gloomy and questionable aspect." (The Antichrist pg. 430 (section 6))

He claims that this pity leads one and persuades to "nothingness"; however, one does not use such a word unless speaking of the 'beyond', 'God' or something higher than we know or may comprehend.

Another claim he makes is on the concept of imagination within religion and in the context of God. In reference to Christianity, "...neither morality nor religion has even a single point of contact with reality." His argument here is that there is no proof behind the arguments for the existence of God. Everything that one has to say, when dealing with such an argument stems back from a subconscious explanation or something that has imaginary attributes to it. This is a concept that Nietzsche refers to as "pure fiction." He compares this world to the world of dreams saying that the world of pure fiction "mirrors reality" where the world of dreams "falsifies" it. One cannot believe an idea nor can they prove an idea that has no real proof or reasoning behind it- as with the case of God in religion. He is there and all around as some may say, but there is no proof or "contact that is ever made within reality" as Nietzsche explains. Without this proof one cannot claim the existence of God in the world or in religions.

One final main argument Nietzsche states in The Antichrist, is of God presented as a contradiction. God is always there supporting the Christians on; "The evil god is needed no less than the good god." People of all sorts, wanting several different things, go to the same God. "Whoever is right wants to give of his riches; a proud people needs a god; it wants to sacrifice. Under such conditions, religion is a form of thankfulness." People need a god in which they can relate to and "know" can understand them, so they came up with a god that know of the "wrath, revenge, envy, scorn, cunning, and violence" along with the "delightful ardeurs of victory and annihilation." As stated above, if one cannot relate to such a god that they have put so much of their thought and understanding into, one would not think of being able to relate to such a god, so one would never be created. A new god has not been created for over 2000 years for the main reason that no one has found a reason to; the god they have now is the God- the one and only like Him.

I feel that both Feuerbach and Nietzsche both believe that religion or an individual having a belief in God has a large impact on people. Feuerbach makes more of a positive tone to his piece, almost as if to give warning to individuals, not to become too engrossed in a religion before thinking of such arguments as he presented. People put so much of their life into religion that when something goes wrong it's disappointing. He speaks of emotion having a huge factor in believing in God. He says

Thereligious problem...is to give fixity to feeling in spite of the vicissitudes of life, and to separate it from repugnant disturbances and limitations: God himself is nothing else than undisturbed, uninterrupted feeling, feeling for which there exists no limits, no opposite." (The Essence of Christianity pg. 383).

He says that religion can cause man to lose ones "individuality." He feels as though man puts too much into religion- where Man feels nothing towards God which he does not also feel towards man.

On the other hand, Nietzsche sees the impact of religion on man again very high, but thinks that for one to believe is ridiculous. When one believes, joins the Christian religion, man is corrupted in his/her life. "What is truth?" There is no truth to what they are being preached. When one joins a religion, one is being taught to be a wimp, to pity the weak, and will be held back in life because of believing. You will not experience the freedom that one could due to the fact you're being preached the crap one is. Nietzsche sums up his thoughts with this quote,

"This hybrid product of decay [the Christian monotono-theism], this mixture of zero, concept, and contradiction, in which all the instincts of decadence, all cowardices and wearinesses of the soul, find their sanction."(pg.433)

Now comes a tough question for me to answer: Give your own assessment of their respective arguments. To start off, I think that Feuerbach makes a good attempt at convincing individuals to believe his thoughts and in some of the cases, I think he is somewhat correct. I do believe that God could be created as a projection of human's anxieties and fears. This helps for those individuals to have somewhere to turn in case of such a conflict does arise in their lives. I also think that it's possible for one to believe in God to give themselves a "role model" so to speak, of how they should live their lives- a path to direct them where to go; however, there is a lot more to God than what he speaks of. It is true that there is no proof that one does not create God because of the ideas listed above, but for a believer, God does not need to be proven. He is there and will always be there. So although Feuerbach makes some good arguments to why, he does not take into account the faith factor of the true believers.

Nietzsche, I just plain out just don't like. I'm not sure if it's the way his article reads or the tone it gives, but I know I don't like it. I also don't agree with the arguments he gives. It's hard for me to totally detest them because I don't fully understand the basis of them. I guess, one problem is that I don't see Nietzsche as necessarily denying the existence of God, but more as bashing the Christian faith. I also don't see the Christian faith as being one for the wimps just because it teaches to show pity or compassion for your neighbor. He claims that "we are deprived of strength when we feel pity" where I feel just the opposite. When we are to feel compassion for one and help them through a time of sorrow, it helps us to be stronger in the future; at the very time we may sink down to be at the same level of emotion they are, but this helps one to understand the other individual, so you can both get to a higher level together. He also claims that religion has no contact with reality. We see miracles and events happening every day that even the highest scientists can't explain; there is the contact with reality he is missing.

Sources:
"Essence of Christianity" Ludwig Feurerbach
"The Antichrist" Friedrich Nietzsche
http://www.nndb.com/people/964/00094682