Discourse on Religion: Nietzsche and Edwards Essay -- Philosophy, Chri

Friedrich Nietzsche certainly serves as a model for the case-by-case best critic of religion. At the other end of this spectrum, Jonathan Edwards emerges as his archrival in terms of religious discourse. Nietzsche argues that Christianitys stance toward all that is sensual is that grounded in hostility, out to tame all that rests on nature, or is innate, akin to Nietzsches position in the world and his views. Taking this into account, Edwardss views on Christianity should be observed in context targeted at those who agree with his psyche, that G-d is great and beyond the capacity of human reason. Edwards reaffirms for his audience G-ds Spiritual and Divine Light. This light imparted to the soul by G-d, is of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means (Edwards, 214). Edwards spells out that his sermon was not intended to verbalise the men who believe solely in lifes natural cause and the anger of G-d. Spiritual light is also something that cannot be witnessed by eye, only by due apprehension of those things that are taught in the volume of G-d. It is at this juncture that Nietzsche wholeheartedly agrees, affirming that the Kingdom of Heaven is a condition of the heart and is not something that emanates from death or comes upon the earth (Nietzsche, Sec. 34). However, Nietzsche debunks Edwards cerebration of sin, claiming it as a contrivance used to invoke fear in the believers of Christianity and to denote ruling agent to the Priest (Nietzsche, Sec. 49). Nietzsche proceeds to deride the determine system of Christianity, spelling out what he sees through the will to power as definitions for happiness, good, and bad (Nietzsche, Sec. 2). For Nietzsche, happiness is the feeling bolstered by power that a resistanc... ...y, according to Nietzsche, still exists as part of certain mortals subconscious states. Since that individual has a preconceived notion of it in their mind before they grasp a higher state of being, it provides light at the end of the tunnel to fuel their mental digression. Pity too must be a product of that individuals emotional state. For people who desire self-pity, the idea of Christianity offers them closure, a rationalized conclusion, at the end of the pathway of the individuals subconscious. In their eyes, the idea of Christianity affords them some level of higher status within their community, which they would not otherwise be competent to attain. Christianity rationalizes for the individual his state of depravity. Had this individual been able to see reality from the get-go, achieve some modicum of societal power, they would not regard self-pity today.