Nietzsche said "God is dead." If we don't even know if a tree makes a noise when it falls in a forest and no

Question

one is there to hear it, how the hell can we say "God is dead"?

Answer 1

Well how can we know God is alive.

Answer 2

This question deserves an answer: 1 tree that falls in a forest makes noise whether you're there or not. From far away, you can see animals run away from the incident. Have you ever been in a forest???
For Nietzsche, what he said was true for him in his time!!!
Do you need to believe all the philosophers you read and word for word???

Answer 3

Because you have absolutely no idea what he meant when he said that "God is dead". "God is Dead" as a phrase is a lot like E=mc^2; every one has heard of it, but few know what it truly means.

He was not criticizing Christians when he said that. You'd never hear Richard Dawkins trumpet that phrase around. And for damn good reason. Philosophically speaking, "God is Dead" is every bit as damning to atheists like Dawkings as it is to, say, the Pope.

Nietzsche was damning science when he said that God is Dead. Scientists have killed God, and now there is no more God. Without God, what purpose do men have in their lives? Science reflects the nature that it studies; cold, neutral, unconcerned with the affairs of men. Men without purpose in their lives become nihilistic; life no longer has purpose, except to end.

However, what makes the phrase damning to the religious is that he says that the Christian ethic, void of God, has no worth. Christian values are completely reliant upon God's decree: Do this and God will reward you. Do this and God will punish you. He contrasts this to ancient Stoicism and epicurianism, which taught that the universe was completely made of atoms (even gods, making ancient Romans de facto atheists), and yet, virtuous living was an honest and worthwhile endeavour, even in the absence of an ultimate judge. That is why he calls Roman ethics a "Master morality" and Christian ethics a "Slave morality". Contrary to the popular misconception of an Ubermensch being some sort of Aryan superman, Nietzsche says that the ubermensch is neither a slave, nor a master. Nietzsche thoroughly critiqued the slave morality in his later works, like "The Antichrist", but his notes indicate that he was planning a similar critique of the master morality before he succumbed to insanity, induced by syphillis.

Nietzsche is famous for saying that God is dead, but he also said this in "Also Sprach Zarathustra", his magnum opus:

"Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks--those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest."

The Ubermensch neither hates god nor enslaves himself to him. Whether he exists or not is irrelevent, because the Ubermensch does not enslave himself to science. The Ubermensch merely acts in full conviction of virtue allowing his mind to give shape and purpose to the existential universe.

Answer 4

We can say whatever we want. Saying "God Is Dead" is a good way to get on the cover of TIME Magazine. Not bad. Come to think of it, it does sort of seem like God is dead lately, doesn't it?

Answer 5

My understanding of the phrase "god is dead" is that it's in reference to the role -- or lack thereof -- of religion in European society: "'God is dead' is not meant literally, as in "God is now physically dead"; rather, it is Nietzsche's way of saying that the idea of God is no longer capable of acting as a source of any moral code or teleology."

Answer 6

the way I understand it, man creates God...man is the ultimate creator, becuase it is all we know. So the overman is concient of his existance and understands his power to create, therefore he no longer needs a god to manage his actions...i might be way wrong

MJR has a WAY better explanation, i kinda touched the same points but mine is vague

Answer 7

i dont think we can, in order to say God is dead, we are saying God was alive at somepoint, and the whole concept of God wouldnt include a beginning and end

Answer 8

He must be alive or it is n't god anymore & search for new one