In a number of my comments on
Nietzsche’s attitude to religion, I often emphasize my conviction that he is by
no means an atheist. In fact, I believe that Søren Kierkegaard, too, had he
lived long enough, would have recognized Nietzsche as a kindred spirit, with whom
he would have had much more in common (like with a pagan worshipping a stick of
wood with sincerity, to use his own words) than with any insincere member
of his own religion. Indeed, it is the shocking sincerity, with which Nietzsche
is posing his questions that must be making a lot of his critics uncomfortable.
With this in mind, I am pointing
to an interesting passage in Nietzsche’s closing confession-autobiography Ecce
Homo (Why I am so Clever, Section 1), where he states exactly
where he stands, with regard to being an atheist, which I insist he is not,
even though the reason he is giving has an ambiguous twist to it. At the same
time, I wonder why he goes only halfway in stating his position on God:
God,
immortality of the soul, redemption, beyond --- without exception, concepts to
which I never devoted any attention, or time; not even as a child. Perhaps, I
have never been childlike enough for them?
I do
not by any means know atheism as a result; even less an event: it is a matter
of course with me, from instinct. I am too inquisitive, too questionable, too
exuberant to stand for a gross answer. God is a gross answer, an
indelicacy against us thinkers, at bottom, only a gross prohibition for us: you
shall not think!
Ironically, this closely
corresponds to my previously expressed thought that the Holy Bible is an unfortunate
waste, philosophically speaking, as to every believer it cannot present
itself as an object of a normal philosophical inquiry. (One shall not doubt what
one believes to be the Word of God!) It is for this reason that our friend
Schopenhauer had embarked on a journey into foreign religions, where he was
allowed to use his “tools of trade,” that is, his philosophical
proclivities without the intellectual restraints that religion is putting on
the believers.
…Too
inquisitive, too questionable, too exuberant to stand for a gross answer. This
is understandable. But why should Nietzsche consider God as an answer?
Nietzsche the daring challenger, too inquisitive, and too
questionable! It is much more challenging to consider Him, God… a
question, in which case, no inquisitive soul should shun God, but rather be
drawn to Him: the Ultimate Puzzle!
…As a matter of fact, I would
like to turn this last thought into the following aphorism:
“Many people prefer to see God
as an Answer, while I see Him as a Question, addressed both to Him by us, and
to us by Him.”
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