Nietsche was the syphilis-plagued philosopher who insisted that “God is dead” and that humanity need not be constrained by traditional morals. His contemporaries thought him a madman.
Within 40 years of Nietzsche’s death, however, Europe was burning. Hitler, in pursuit of Nietzche’s “super race,” stood unopposed in purging Jews and gypsies from his new reich. Six and a half decades after Nietzshe’s death. Time Magazine emblazoned its cover with three shocking words: “God Is Dead.” Bible reading and prayer were thrown out of state schools in the United States and sex education and a spirit of free love were ushered in.
Before a century had passed, the logical end of this philosophy had taken hold of a whole generation: not only was God dead, but so was truth. The absolutes on which morality had been based were dead. Determination of right and wrong became a relative matter. Nietzche may not be the direct cause of the confusion and emptiness of postmodernism, but he at least was the cultural prophet who heralded its coming. The age of enlightenment ushered in cultural modernism. It gradually displaced God’s authority with man’s reason.
In its pursuit of the discovery of the secrets of the universe, academia believed that it could solve all the problems of humanity. With each scientific and technological advance from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, God became less and less relevant. While rationalism marginalized God, it did not solve the endemic problems of human suffering and inhumanity.
The twentieth century has been the bloodiest century in world history. Nietzsche himself predicted this bloodbath as modern man would come of age, jettisoning medieval social mores for a morality of his own creation. Man would become free to play God.
Ironically, the age of reason that promised to give solutions for the woes of civilization has given birth to an era of willful ignorance and indifference. Modernism’s technological and philosophical contributions to the barbarity of this century, not to mention its lack of answers for personal and world peace, have resulted in a reactionary movement against rationalism.
So you see, Nietsche planted the "seeds" of immorality because he felt man was above the laws of God and could decide for himself. He then predicted the outcome of what would happen as those seeds were nutured. Turned out that his predictions were correct. But, that is like soaking a house with gasoline and then predicting that it will eventually catch fire and be destroyed.
I do not call this man a "great philosopher". I call him evil and irresposible. He must accept even in death the responsibility of such acts as those committed by one of his philosophical followers....Adolf Hitler!!! Even worse, he may well be one of the biggest contributors to the immoral world we live in today. Certainly, he has influenced some of the most out-spoken athiests. And as I can see from this web site, many of you posting here follow his philosophies (either knowingly or unknowingly).
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