The Antichrist
The Antichrist Analysis
Nietzsche sets out to denounce and illegitimize not only Christianity itself as a belief and a practice, but also the ethical-moral value system which modern western civilization has inherited from it in the Antichrist. One of the most important of these ideas is that Christianity has made people nihilistic and weak by regarding pity and related sentiments as the highest virtues. Nietzsche traces the origin of these values to the ancient Jews who lived under Roman occupation, but here he puts them in terms of a reversal of their conception of God. I agree with some of the ideas Nietzsche offers in regards to Christianity and other ideas related to Buddhism. Nietzsche starts by criticizing Christianity for denouncing and regarding as evil those basic instincts of human beings which are self- preservation and survival skills. Instead, Christianity maintains and advocates values which Nietzsche sees as self-destructing or nihilistic, of which the most important is pity. “Christianity is called the religion of pity…..it is a depressant (3).” I have been around and associated with Christianity many years of my life and have never heard of such a thing as a religion of pity. I assume, this term is related to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, if my assumption is correct, I believe Nietzsche misunderstood the message that was being conveyed. Pity is not the emotion that was intended, freedom was the intended emotion. Jesus refused to be changed by force and was crucified for that reason. His intent was to lead by example, to be proud of who you are and be proud of what you represent. Nietzsche goes on the state “pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection (3).” Natural selection, in lamest terms is survival of the fittest, and not physically fit, but fit enough to reproduce fertile offspring, to survive just long enough to have those offspring, and at times not live a day longer than the birth of those
Nietzsche sets out to denounce and illegitimize not only Christianity itself as a belief and a practice, but also the ethical-moral value system which modern western civilization has inherited from it in the Antichrist. One of the most important of these ideas is that Christianity has made people nihilistic and weak by regarding pity and related sentiments as the highest virtues. Nietzsche traces the origin of these values to the ancient Jews who lived under Roman occupation, but here he puts them in terms of a reversal of their conception of God. I agree with some of the ideas Nietzsche offers in regards to Christianity and other ideas related to Buddhism. Nietzsche starts by criticizing Christianity for denouncing and regarding as evil those basic instincts of human beings which are self- preservation and survival skills. Instead, Christianity maintains and advocates values which Nietzsche sees as self-destructing or nihilistic, of which the most important is pity. “Christianity is called the religion of pity…..it is a depressant (3).” I have been around and associated with Christianity many years of my life and have never heard of such a thing as a religion of pity. I assume, this term is related to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, if my assumption is correct, I believe Nietzsche misunderstood the message that was being conveyed. Pity is not the emotion that was intended, freedom was the intended emotion. Jesus refused to be changed by force and was crucified for that reason. His intent was to lead by example, to be proud of who you are and be proud of what you represent. Nietzsche goes on the state “pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection (3).” Natural selection, in lamest terms is survival of the fittest, and not physically fit, but fit enough to reproduce fertile offspring, to survive just long enough to have those offspring, and at times not live a day longer than the birth of those