217.
War against the _Christian ideal,_ against the doctrine of
"blessedness" and "salvation" as the aims of life, against the
supremacy of the fools, of the pure in heart, of the suffering and of
the botched!
When and where has any man, _of any note at all,_ resembled the
Christian ideal?--at least in the eyes of those who are psychologists
and triers of the heart and reins. Look at all Plutarch's heroes!
218.
_Our claim to superiority_: we live in an age of _Comparisons_; we
are able to calculate as men have never yet calculated; in every way
we are history become self-conscious. We enjoy things in a different
way; we suffer in a different way: our instinctive activity is the
comparison of an enormous variety of things. We understand everything;
we experience everything, we no longer have a hostile feeling left
within us. However disastrous the results may be to ourselves, our
plunging and almost lustful inquisitiveness, attacks, unabashed, the
most dangerous of subjects....
"Everything is good"--it gives us pain to say "nay" to anything. We
suffer when we feel that we are sufficiently foolish to make a definite
stand against anything.... At bottom, it is we scholars who to-day are
fulfilling Christ's teaching most thoroughly.
219.
We cannot suppress a certain irony when we contemplate those who think
they have overcome Christianity by means of modern natural science.
Christian values are by no means overcome by such people. "Christ on
the cross" is still the most sublime symbol--even now....
220.
The two great Nihilistic movements are: _(a)_ Buddhism, _(b)_
Christianity. The latter has only just about reached a state of
culture in which it can fulfil its original object,--it has found its
_level,_--and now it can manifest itself _without disguise_.....
221.
We have _re-established_ the Christian ideal, it now only remains _to
determine_ its value.
(1) Which values does it _deny_? What does _the ideal that opposes it_
stand for?--Pride, pathos of distance, great responsibility, exuberant
spirits, splendid animalism, the instincts of war and of conquest;
the deification of passion, revenge, cunning, anger, voluptuousness,
adventure, knowledge--the _noble ideal_ is denied: the beauty, wisdom,
power, pomp, and awfulness of the type man: the man who postulates
aims, the "future" man (here Christianity presents itself as the
_logical result_ of _Judaism_).
(2) _Can it be realised?_--Yes, of course, when the climatic conditions
are favourable--as in the case of the Indian ideal. Both neglect the
factor _work._--It separates a creature from a people, a state, a
civilised community, and jurisdiction; it rejects education, wisdom,
the cultivation of good manners, acquisition and commerce; it cuts
adrift everything which is of use and value to men--by means of an
idiosyncrasy of sentiment it _isolates_ a man. It is non-political,
anti-national, neither aggressive nor defensive,--and only possible
within a strictly-ordered State or state of society, which allows these
_holy parasites_ to flourish at the cost of their neighbours.....
(3) It has now become the will to be _happy_--and nothing else!
"Blessedness" stands for something self-evident, that no longer
requires any justification--everything else (the way to live and let
live) is only a means to an end....
But what follows is the result of a _low order of thought,_ the fear of
pain, of defilement, of corruption, is great enough to provide ample
grounds for allowing everything to go to the dogs.... This is a _poor_
way of thinking, and is the sign of an exhausted race; we _must_ not
allow ourselves to be deceived. ("Become as little children." Natures
_of the same order_: Francis of Assisi, neurotic, epileptic, visionary,
like Jesus.)
222.
The _higher_ man distinguishes himself from the _lower_ by his
fearlessness and his readiness to challenge misfortune: it is a
sign of _degeneration_ when eudemonistic values begin to prevail
(physiological fatigue and enfeeblement of will-power). Christianity,
with its prospect of "blessedness," is the typical attitude of mind of
a suffering and impoverished species of man. Abundant strength will be
active, will suffer, and will go under: to it the bigotry of Christian
salvation is bad music and hieratic posing and vexation.
223.
_Poverty, humility, and chastity_ are dangerous and slanderous ideals;
but like poisons, which are useful cures in the case of certain
diseases, they were also necessary in the time of the Roman Empire.
All ideals are dangerous: because they lower and brand realities; they
are all poisons, but occasionally indispensable as cures.
224.
God created man, happy, idle, innocent, and immortal: our actual life
is a false, decadent, and sinful existence, a punishment.... Suffering,
struggle, work, and death are raised as objections against life, they
make life questionable, unnatural--something that must cease, and for
which one not only requires but also _has_--remedies!
Since the time of Adam, man has been in an abnormal state: God
Himself delivered up His Son for Adam's sin, in order to put an end
to the abnormal condition of things: the natural character of life
is a _curse_; to those who believe in Him, Christ restores normal
life: He makes them happy, idle, and innocent. But the world did not
become fruitful without labour; women do not bear children without
pain; illness has not ceased: believers are served just as badly as
unbelievers in this respect. All that has happened is, that man is
delivered from _death_ and _sin--_two assertions which allow of no
verification, and which are therefore emphasised by the Church with
more than usual heartiness. "He is free from sin,"--not owing to
his own efforts, not owing to a vigorous struggle on his part, but
_redeemed by the death of the Saviour,_--consequently, perfectly
innocent and paradisaical.
_Actual_ life is nothing more than an illusion (that is to say, a
deception, an insanity). The whole of struggling, fighting, and
real existence--so full of light and shade, is only bad and false:
everybody's duty is to be _delivered_ from it.
"Man, innocent, idle, immortal, and happy"--this concept, which is
the object of the "most supreme desires," must be criticised before
anything else. Why should guilt, work, death, and pain (_and,_ from
the Christian point of view, also _knowledge_ ...) be _contrary_ to
all supreme desires?--The lazy Christian notions: "blessedness,"
"innocence," "immortality."
225.
The eccentric concept "holiness" does not exist--"God" and "man" have
not been divorced from each other. "Miracles" do not exist--such
spheres do not exist: the only one to be considered is the
"intellectual" (that is to say, the symbolically-psychological). As
decadence: a counterpart to "Epicureanism." ... Paradise according to
Greek notions was only "Epicurus' Garden."
A life of this sort lacks a purpose: it _strives after_ nothing;--a
form of the "Epicurean gods"--there is no longer any reason to aim at
anything,--not even at having children:--everything has been done.
226.
They despised the body: they did not reckon with it: nay, more--they
treated it as an enemy. It was their delirium to think that a man
could carry a "beautiful soul" about in a body that was a cadaverous
abortion.... In order to inoculate others with this insanity they
had to present the concept "beautiful soul" in a different way, and
to transvalue the natural value, until, at last, a pale, sickly,
idiotically exalted creature, something angelic, some extreme
perfection and transfiguration was declared to be the higher man.
227.
Ignorance in matters psychological.--The Christian has no nervous
system;--contempt for, and deliberate and wilful turning away from, the
demands of the body, and the _naked_ body; it is assumed that all this
is in keeping with man's nature, and _must perforce work the ultimate
good of the soul_;--all functions of the body are systematically
reduced to moral values; illness itself is regarded as determined by
morality, it is held to be the result of sin, or it is a trial or a
state of salvation, through which man becomes more perfect than he
could become in a state of health (Pascal's idea); under certain
circumstances, there are wilful attempts at inducing illness.
228.
What in sooth is this struggle "against Nature" on the part of the
Christian? We shall not, of course, let ourselves be deceived by
his words and explanations. It is Nature against something which is
also Nature. With many, it is fear; with others, it is loathing;
with yet others, it is the sign of a certain intellectuality, the
love of a bloodless and passionless ideal; and in the case of the
most superior men, it is love of an abstract Nature--these try to
live up to their ideal. It is easily understood that humiliation in
the place of self-esteem, anxious cautiousness towards the passions,
emancipation from the usual duties (whereby, a higher notion of rank is
created), the incitement to constant war on behalf of enormous issues,
habituation to effusiveness of feelings--all this goes to constitute
a type: in such a type the _hypersensitiveness_ of a perishing body
preponderates; but the nervousness and the inspirations it engenders
are _interpreted_ differently. The _taste_ of this kind of creature
tends either (1) to subtilise, (2) to indulge in bombastic eloquence,
or (3) to go in for extreme feelings. The natural inclinations _do_
get satisfied, but they are interpreted in a new way; for instance,
as "justification before God," "the feeling of redemption through
grace," every undeniable _feeling of pleasure_ becomes (interpreted
in this way!) pride, voluptuousness, etc. General problem: what will
become of the man who slanders and practically denies and belittles
what is natural? As a matter of fact, the Christian is an example of
exaggerated self-control: in order to tame his passions, he seems to
find it necessary to extirpate or crucify them.
229.
Man did not know himself physiologically throughout the ages his
history covers; he does not even know himself now. The knowledge, for
instance, that man has a nervous system (but no "soul") is still the
privilege of the most educated people. But man is not satisfied, in
this respect, to say he does not know. A man must be very superior to
be able to say: "I do not know this,"--that is to say, to be able to
admit his ignorance.
Suppose he is in pain or in a good mood, he never questions that he
can find the reason of either condition if only he seeks.... In truth,
he cannot find the reason; for he does not even suspect where it
lies.... What happens?... He takes the _result_ of his condition for
its _cause_; for instance, if he should undertake some work (really
undertaken because his good mood gave him the courage to do so) and
carry it through successfully: behold, the work itself is the _reason_
of his good mood.... As a matter of fact, his success was determined by
the same cause as that which brought about his good mood--that is to
say, the happy co-ordination of physiological powers and functions.
He feels bad: _consequently_ he cannot overcome a care, a scruple,
or an attitude of self-criticism.... He really fancies that his
disagreeable condition is the result of his scruple, of his "sin," or
of his "self-criticism."
But after profound exhaustion and prostration, a state of recovery sets
in. "How is it possible that I can feel so free, so happy? It is a
miracle; only a God could have effected this change."--Conclusion: "He
has forgiven my sin." ...
From this follow certain practices: in order to provoke feelings of
sinfulness and to prepare the way for crushed spirits it is necessary
to induce a condition of morbidity and nervousness in the body. The
methods of doing this are well known. Of course, nobody suspects
the causal logic of the fact: the _maceration_ of the _flesh_ is
interpreted religiously, it seems like an end in itself, whereas it
is no more than a _means_ of bringing about that morbid state of
indigestion which is known as repentance (the "fixed idea" of sin, the
hypnotising of the hen by-means of the chalk-line "sin").
The mishandling of the body prepares the ground for the required range
of "guilty feelings"--that is to say, for that general state of pain
which _demands an explanation...._
On the other hand, the _method_ of "salvation" may also develop
from the above: every dissipation of the feelings, whether prayers,
movements, attitudes, or oaths, has been provoked, and exhaustion
follows; very often it is acute, or it appears in the form of
epilepsy. And behind this condition of deep somnolence there come signs
of recovery--or, in religious parlance, "Salvation."
230.
Formerly, the conditions and results of _physiological exhaustion_ were
considered more important than healthy conditions and their results,
and this was owing to the suddenness, fearfulness, and mysteriousness
of the former. Men were terrified by themselves, and postulated the
existence of a _higher_ world. People have ascribed the origin of the
idea of two worlds--one this side of the grave and the other beyond
it--to sleep and dreams, to shadows, to night, and to the fear of
Nature: but the symptoms of physiological exhaustion should, above all,
have been considered.
Ancient religions have quite special methods of disciplining the
pious into states of exhaustion, in which they _must_ experience such
things.... The idea was, that one entered into a new order of things,
where everything ceases to be known.--The _semblance_ of a higher
power....
231.
Sleep is the result of every kind of exhaustion; exhaustion follows
upon all excessive excitement....
In all pessimistic religions and philosophies there is a yearning for
sleep; the very notion "sleep" is deified and worshipped.
In this case the exhaustion is racial; sleep regarded psychologically
is only a symbol of a much deeper and longer _compulsion to rest....
In praxi_ it is death which rules here in the seductive image of its
brother sleep....
232.
The whole of the Christian training in repentance and redemption may
be regarded as a _folie circulaire_ arbitrarily produced; though,
of course, it can be produced only in people who are predisposed to
it--that is to say, who have morbid tendencies in their constitutions.
233.
_Against remorse and its purely psychical treatment._--To be unable
to have done with an experience is already a sign of decadence.
This reopening of old wounds, this wallowing in self-contempt and
depression, is an additional form of disease; no "salvation of the
soul" ever results from it, but only a new kind of spiritual illness....
These "conditions of salvation" of which the Christian is conscious are
merely variations of the same diseased state--the interpretation of an
attack of epilepsy by means of a particular formula which is provided,
_not_ by science, but by religious mania.
When a man is ill his very _goodness_ is sickly.... By far the
greatest portion of the psychical apparatus which Christianity has
used, is now classed among the various forms of hysteria and epilepsy.
The whole process of spiritual healing must be remodelled on a
physiological basis: the "sting of conscience" as such is an obstacle
in the way of recovery--as soon as possible the attempt must be made
to counterbalance everything by means of new actions, so that there
may be an escape from the morbidness of _self-torture...._ The purely
psychical practices of the Church and of the various sects should be
decried as dangerous to the health. No invalid is ever cured by prayers
or by the exorcising of evil spirits: the states of "repose" which
follow upon such methods of treatment, by no means inspire confidence,
in the psychological sense....
A man is _healthy_ when he can laugh at the seriousness and ardour with
which he has allowed himself to be _hypnotised_ to any extent by any
detail in his life--when his remorse seems to him like the action of a
dog biting a stone--when he is ashamed of his repentance.
The purely psychological and religious practices, which have existed
hitherto, only led to an _alteration in the symptoms_: according to
them a man had recovered when he bowed before the cross, and swore
that in future he would be a good man.... But a criminal, who, with
a certain gloomy seriousness cleaves to his fate and refuses to
malign his deed once it is done, has more _spiritual health...._
The criminals with whom Dostoiewsky associated in prison, were all,
without exception, unbroken natures,--are they not a hundred times more
valuable than a "broken-spirited" Christian?
(For the treatment of pangs of conscience I recommend Mitchell's
Treatment.[2])
[Footnote 2: TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.--In _The New Sydenham Society's Lexicon
of Medicine and the Allied Sciences,_ the following description of
Mitchell's treatment is to be found: "A method of treating cases of
neurasthenia and hysteria ... by removal from home, rest in bed,
massage twice a day, electrical excitation of the muscles, and
excessive feeding, at first with milk."]
234.
A _pang of conscience_ in a man is a sign that his character is not
yet equal to his _deed._ There is such a thing as a pang of conscience
after _good deeds_: in this case it is their unfamiliarity, their
incompatibility with an old environment.
235.
_Against remorse._--I do not like this form of cowardice in regard to
one's own actions, one must not leave one's self in the lurch under
the pressure of sudden shame or distress. Extreme pride is much more
fitting here. What is the good of it all in the end! No deed gets
undone because it is regretted, no more than because it is "forgiven"
or "expiated." A man must be a theologian in order to believe in
a power that erases faults: we immoralists prefer to disbelieve
in "faults." We believe that all deeds, of what kind soever, are
identically the same at root; just as deeds which turn _against_ us
may be useful from an economical point of view, and even _generally
desirable._ In certain individual cases, we admit that we might well
have been _spared_ a given action; the circumstances alone predisposed
us in its favour. Which of us, if _favoured_ by circumstances, would
not already have committed every possible crime?... That is why one
should never say: "Thou shouldst never have done such and such a
thing," but only: "How strange it is that I have not done such and
such a thing hundreds of times already!"--As a matter of fact, only
a very small number of acts are _typical_ acts and real epitomes of
a personality, and seeing what a small number of people really are
personalities, a single act very rarely _characterises_ a man. Acts
are mostly dictated by circumstances; they are superficial or merely
reflex movements performed in response to a stimulus, long before the
depths of our beings are affected or consulted in the matter. A fit of
temper, a gesture, a blow with a knife: how little of the individual
resides in these acts!--A deed very often brings a sort of stupor or
feeling of constraint in its wake: so that the agent feels almost
spellbound at its recollection, or as though he _belonged to it,_
and were not an independent creature. This mental disorder, which is
a form of hypnotism, must be resisted at all costs: surely a single
deed, whatever it be, when it is compared with all one has done, is
_nothing,_ and may be deducted from the sum without making the account
wrong. The unfair interest which society manifests in controlling the
whole of our lives in one direction, as though the very purpose of its
existence were to cultivate a certain individual act, should not infect
the man of action: but unfortunately this happens almost continually.
The reason of this is, that every deed, if followed by unexpected
consequences, leads to a certain mental disturbance, no matter whether
the consequences be good or bad. Behold a lover who has been given a
promise, or a poet while he is receiving applause from an audience:
as far as _intellectual torpor_ is concerned, these men are in no way
different from the anarchist who is suddenly confronted by a detective
bearing a search warrant.
There are some acts which are _unworthy_ of us: acts which, if they
were regarded as typical, would set us down as belonging to a lower
class of man. The one fault that has to be avoided here, is to regard
them as typical. There is another kind of act of which _we_ are
unworthy: exceptional acts, born of a particular abundance of happiness
and health; they are the highest waves of our spring tides, driven to
an unusual height by a storm--an accident: such acts and "deeds" are
also not typical. An artist should never be judged according to the
measure of his works.
236.
A. In proportion as Christianity seems necessary to-day, man is still
wild and fatal....
B. In another sense, it is not necessary, but extremely dangerous,
though it is captivating and seductive, because it corresponds with
the _morbid_ character of whole classes and types of modern humanity,
... they simply follow their inclinations when they aspire to
Christianity--they are decadents of all kinds.
A and B must be kept very sharply apart. In the _case of A,_
Christianity is a cure, or at least a taming process (under certain
circumstances it serves the purpose of making people ill: and this is
sometimes useful as a means of subduing savage and brutal natures).
In the _case of B,_ it is a symptom of illness itself, it renders the
state of decadence _more acute_; in this case it stands opposed to
a _corroborating_ system of treatment, it is the invalid's instinct
standing _against_ that which would be most salutary to him.
237.
On one side there are the _serious,_ the _dignified,_ and _reflective_
people: and on the other the barbarous, the unclean, and the
irresponsible beasts: it is merely a question of _taming animals_--and
in this case the tamer must be hard, terrible, and awe-inspiring, at
least to his beasts.
All essential requirements must be imposed upon the unruly creatures
with almost brutal distinctness--that is to say, magnified a thousand
times.
Even the fulfilment of the requirement must be presented in the
coarsest way possible, so that it may command respect, as in the case
of the spiritualisation of the Brahmins. _The struggle with the rabble
and the herd._ If any degree of tameness and order has been reached,
the chasm separating these _purified_ and _regenerated_ people from the
terrible _remainder_ must have been bridged....
This chasm is a means of increasing self-respect in higher castes,
and of confirming their belief in _that_ which they represent--hence
the _Chandala._ Contempt and its excess are perfectly correct
psychologically--that is to say, magnified a hundred times, so that it
may at least be felt.
238.
The struggle against _brutal_ instincts is quite different from
the struggle against _morbid_ instincts; it may even be a means
of overcoming brutality by making the brutes _ill._ The psychical
treatment practised by Christianity is often nothing more than the
process of converting a brute into a sick and _therefore_ tame animal.
The struggle against raw and savage natures must be a struggle with
weapons which are able to affect such natures: _superstitions_ and such
means are therefore indispensable and essential.
239.
Our age, in a certain sense, is _mature_ (that is to say, decadent),
just as Buddha's was.... That is why a sort of Christianity is possible
without all the absurd dogmas (the most repulsive offshoots of ancient
hybridism).
240.
Supposing it were impossible to disprove Christianity, Pascal thinks,
in view of the _terrible_ possibility that it may be true, that it is
in the highest degree prudent to be a Christian. As a proof of how
much Christianity has lost of its terrible nature, to-day we find that
other attempt to justify it, which consists in asserting, that even if
it were a mistake, it nevertheless provides the greatest advantages
and pleasures for its adherents throughout their lives:--it therefore
seems that this belief should be upheld owing to the peace and quiet
it ensures--not owing to the terror of a threatening possibility, but
rather out of fear of a life that has lost its charm. This hedonistic
turn of thought, which uses happiness as a proof, is a symptom of
decline: it takes the place of the proof resulting from power or from
that which to the Christian mind is most terrible--namely, _fear._ With
this new interpretation, Christianity is, as a matter of fact, nearing
its stage of exhaustion. People are satisfied with a Christianity which
is an _opiate,_ because they no longer have the strength to seek, to
struggle, to dare, to stand alone, nor to take up Pascal's position and
to share that gloomily brooding self-contempt, that belief in human
unworthiness, and that anxiety which believes that it "may be damned."
But a Christianity the chief object of which is to soothe diseased
nerves, does _not require_ the terrible solution consisting of a "God
on the cross"; that is why Buddhism is secretly gaining ground all
over Europe.
241.
The humour of European culture: people regard one thing as true, but do
_the other._ For instance, what is the use of all the art of reading
and criticising, if the ecclesiastical interpretation of the Bible,
whether according to Catholics or Protestants, is still upheld!
242.
No one is sufficiently aware of the barbarity of the notions among
which we Europeans still live. To think that men have been able to
believe that the "Salvation of the soul" depended upon a book!... And I
am told that this is still believed.
What is the good of all scientific education, all criticism and all
hermeneutics, if such nonsense as the Church's interpretation of the
Bible has not yet turned the colours of our bodies permanently into the
red of shame?
243.
_Subject for reflection_: To what extent does the fatal belief in
"Divine Providence"--the most _paralysing_ belief for both the hand
and the understanding that has ever existed--continue to prevail;
to what extent have the Christian hypothesis and interpretation of
Life continued their lives under the cover of terms like "Nature,"
"Progress," "perfectionment," "Darwinism," or beneath the superstition
that there is a certain relation between happiness and virtue,
unhappiness and sin? That absurd _belief_ in the course of things, in
"Life" and in the "instinct of Life"; that foolish _resignation_ which
arises from the notion that if only every one did his duty _all_ would
go well--all this sort of thing can only have a meaning if one assumes
that there is a direction of things _sub specie boni._ Even _fatalism,_
our present form of philosophical sensibility, is the result of a
_long_ belief in Divine Providence, an unconscious result: as though it
were nothing to do with us how everything goes! (As though we _might_
let things take their own course; the individual being only a _modus_
of the absolute reality.)
244.
It is the height of psychological falsity on the part of man to imagine
a being according to his own petty standard, who is a beginning, a
"thing-in-itself," and who appears to him good, wise, mighty, and
precious; for thus he suppresses in thoughts _all the causality_
by means of which every kind of goodness, wisdom, and power comes
into existence and has value. In short, elements of the most recent
and most conditional origin were regarded not as evolved, but as
spontaneously generated and "things-in-themselves," and perhaps as
the cause of all things.... Experience teaches us that, in every case
in which a man has means elevated the interests of the species above
those of the individual. Its real _historical_ effect, its fatal
effect, remains precisely the _increase of egotism,_ of individual
egotism, to excess (to the extreme which consists in the belief in
individual immortality). The individual was made so important and so
absolute, by means of Christian values, that he could no longer be
_sacrificed,_ despite the fact that the species can only be maintained
by human sacrifices. All "souls" became _equal_ before God: but this
is the most pernicious of all valuations! If one regards individuals
as equals, the demands of the species are ignored, and a process is
initiated which ultimately leads to its ruin. Christianity is the
_reverse of the_ principle of _selection._ If the degenerate and sick
man ("the Christian") is to be of the same value as the healthy man
("the pagan"), or if he is even to be valued higher than the latter,
as Pascal's view of health and sickness would have us value him, the
natural course of evolution is thwarted and the _unnatural_ becomes
law.... In practice this general love of mankind is nothing more
than deliberately favouring all the suffering, the botched, and the
degenerate: it is this love that has reduced and weakened the power,
responsibility, and lofty duty of sacrificing men. According to the
scheme of Christian values, all that remained was the alternative
of self-sacrifice, but this _vestige_ of human sacrifice, which
Christianity conceded and even recommended, has no meaning when
regarded in the light of rearing a whole species. The prosperity of the
species is by no means affected by the sacrifice of one individual
(whether in the monastic and ascetic manner, or by means of crosses,
stakes, and scaffolds, as the "martyrs" of error). What the species
requires is the suppression of the physiologically botched, the
weak and the degenerate: but it was precisely to these people that
Christianity appealed as a _preservative_ force, it simply strengthened
that natural and very strong instinct of all the weak which bids them
protect, maintain, and mutually support each other. What is Christian
"virtue" and "love of men," if not precisely this mutual assistance
with a view to survival, this solidarity of the weak, this thwarting of
selection? What is Christian altruism, if it is not the mob-egotism of
the weak which divines that, if everybody looks after everybody else,
every individual will be preserved for a longer period of time?... He
who does not consider this attitude of mind as _immoral,_ as a crime
against life, himself belongs to the sickly crowd, and also shares
their instincts.... Genuine love of mankind exacts sacrifice for
the good of the species--it is hard, full of self-control, because
it needs human sacrifices. And this pseudo-humanity which is called
Christianity, would fain establish the rule that nobody should be
sacrificed.
247.
Nothing could be more useful and deserves more promotion than
systematic _Nihilism in action._--As I understand the phenomena of
Christianity and pessimism, this is what they say: "We are ripe for
nonentity, for us it is reasonable not to be." This hint from "reason"
in this case, is simply the voice of _selective Nature._
On the other hand, what deserves the most rigorous condemnation, is
the ambiguous and cowardly infirmity of purpose of a religion like
_Christianity,_--or rather like the _Church,_--which, instead of
recommending death and self-destruction, actually protects all the
botched and bungled, and encourages them to propagate their kind.
Problem: with what kind of means could one lead up to a severe form of
really contagious Nihilism--a Nihilism which would teach and practise
voluntary death with scientific conscientiousness (and not the feeble
continuation of a vegetative sort of life with false hopes of a life
after death)?
Christianity cannot be sufficiently condemned for having depreciated
the _value_ of a great _cleansing_ Nihilistic movement (like the one
which was probably in the process of formation), by its teaching of
the immortality of the private individual, as also by the hopes of
resurrection which it held out: that is to say, by dissuading people
from performing the _deed of Nihilism_ which is suicide.... In the
latter's place it puts lingering suicide, and gradually a puny, meagre,
but durable life; gradually a perfectly ordinary, bourgeois, mediocre
life, etc.
248.
_Christian moral quackery._--Pity and contempt succeed each other at
short intervals, and at the sight of them I feel as indignant as if I
were in the presence of the most despicable crime. Here error is made
a duty--a virtue, misapprehension has become a knack, the destructive
instinct is systematised under the name of "redemption"; here every
operation becomes a wound, an amputation of those very organs whose
energy would be the prerequisite to a return of health. And in the
best of cases no cure is effected; all that is done is to exchange one
set of evil symptoms for another set.... And this pernicious nonsense,
this systematised profanation and castration of life, passes for
holy and sacred; to be in its service, to be an instrument of this
art of healing--that is to say, to be a priest, is to be rendered
distinguished, reverent, holy, and sacred. God alone could have been
the Author of this supreme art of healing; redemption is only possible
as a revelation, as an act of grace, as an unearned gift, made by the
Creator Himself.
Proposition I.: Spiritual healthiness is regarded as morbid, and
creates suspicion....
Proposition II.: The prerequisites of a strong, exuberant life--strong
desires and passions--are reckoned as objections against strong and
exuberant life.
Proposition III.: Everything which threatens danger to man, and which
can overcome and ruin him, is evil--and should be torn root and branch
from his soul.
Proposition IV.: Man converted into a weak creature, inoffensive to
himself and others, crushed by humility and modesty, and conscious of
his weakness,--in fact, the "sinner,"--this is the desirable type, and
one which one can _produce_ by means of a little spiritual surgery....
249.
What is it I protest against? That people should regard this paltry and
peaceful mediocrity, this spiritual equilibrium which knows nothing
of the fine impulses of great accumulations of strength, as something
high, or possibly as the standard of all things.
_Bacon of Verulam_ says: _Infimarum virtutum apud vulgus laus est,
mediarum admiratio, supremarum sensus nullus._ Christianity as a
religion, however, belongs to the _vulgus_: it has no feeling for the
highest kind of _virtus_.
250.
Let us see what the "genuine Christian" does of all the things which
his instincts forbid him to do:--he covers beauty, pride, riches,
self-reliance, brilliancy, knowledge, and power with suspicion and
_mud_--in short, _all culture_: his object is to deprive the latter of
its _clean conscience._
251.
The attacks made upon Christianity, hitherto, have been not only timid
but false. So long as Christian morality was not felt to be a _capital
crime against Life,_ its apologists had a good time. The question
concerning the mere "truth" of Christianity--whether in regard to the
existence of its God, or to the legendary history of its origin, not to
speak of its astronomy and natural science--is quite beside the point
so long as no inquiry is made into the value of Christian _morality._
Are Christian morals _worth anything,_ or are they a profanation and an
outrage, despite all the arts of holiness and seduction with which they
are enforced? The question concerning the truth of the religion may be
met by all sorts of subterfuges; and the most fervent believers can,
in the end, avail themselves of the logic used by their opponents, in
order to create a right for their side to assert that certain things
are irrefutable--that is to say, they _transcend_ the means employed
to refute them (nowadays this trick of dialectics is called "Kantian
Criticism").
252.
Christianity should never be forgiven for having ruined such men as
Pascal. This is precisely what should be combated in Christianity,
namely, that it has the will to break the spirit of the strongest
and noblest natures. One should take no rest until this thing is
utterly destroyed:--the ideal of mankind which Christianity advances,
the demands it makes upon men, and its "Nay" and "Yea" relative to
humanity. The whole of the remaining absurdities, that is to say,
Christian fable, Christian cobweb-spinning in ideas and principles,
and Christian theology, do not concern us; they might be a thousand
times more absurd and we should not raise a finger to destroy them.
But what we do stand up against, is that ideal which, thanks to its
morbid beauty and feminine seductiveness, thanks to its insidious and
slanderous eloquence, appeals to all the cowardices and vanities of
wearied souls,--and the strongest have their moments of fatigue,--as
though all that which seems most useful and desirable at such
moments--that is to say, confidence, artlessness, modesty, patience,
love of one's like, resignation, submission to God, and a sort of
self-surrender--were useful and desirable _per se_; as though the puny,
modest abortion which in these creatures takes the place of a soul,
this virtuous, mediocre animal and sheep of the flock--which deigns to
call itself man, were not only to take precedence of the stronger, more
evil, more passionate, more defiant, and more prodigal type of man, who
by virtue of these very qualities is exposed to a hundred times more
dangers than the former, but were actually to stand as an ideal for man
in general, as a goal, a measure--the highest desideratum. The creation
of _this_ ideal was the most appalling temptation that had ever
been put in the way of mankind; for, with it, the stronger and more
successful exceptions, the lucky cases among men, in which the will
to power and to growth leads the whole species "man" one step farther
forward, this type was threatened with disaster. By means of the values
of this ideal, the growth of such higher men would be checked at the
root. For these men, owing to their superior demands and duties,
readily accept a more dangerous life (speaking economically, it is a
case of an increase in the costs of the undertaking coinciding with
a greater chance of failure). What is it we combat in Christianity?
That it aims at destroying the strong, at breaking their spirit, at
exploiting their moments of weariness and debility, at converting
their proud assurance into anxiety and conscience-trouble; that it
knows how to poison the noblest instincts and to infect them with
disease, until their strength, their will to power, turns inwards,
against themselves--until the strong perish through their excessive
self-contempt and self-immolation: that gruesome way of perishing, of
which _Pascal_ is the most famous example.