Week 2, Gods too Decompose

It is difficult to determine in “Gods too Decompose” whether Nietzsche’s parable has a positive or a negative connotation. First, I found it interesting that the crowd was composed of non-believers. Perhaps Nietzsche is suggesting that there are no true believers left, because God is dead to them. There is not one person left who takes the madman seriously when they laugh at his “looking for God.” The serious nature of their loss is ignored.

Then, Nietzsche suggests that we have destroyed all boundaries and absolutes, because we have “[sponged] away the entire horizon.” As we pursue scientific inquiry, our knowledge of the world becomes larger and colder. We lose the warmth and community that God provides. Instead, there is a sense of nothingness, a hurdling through space without direction.

Yet, human beings ignore their loss when they “do not hear anything yet. . . of the gravediggers.” They do not smell the decomposition of their boundaries nor honor the loss of an enormous aspect of humanity. Nonetheless, the boundaries are too far gone to regain. There may be no purification at this point because there is no longer any sense of the finite. Our religious rituals are now meaningless, because God is dead to us. We call out to him, but he can no longer hear because our deed is “too great.”

The next statement can have two completely different meanings. When he states that “there can never be a greater deed,” greater can mean bigger/grander, or it can mean better. If it means grander, it implies that we do not perceive the enormity of our loss. Perhaps this is why the situation is too far gone for God to be regained. If it means better, Nietzsche is happy at the loss of boundaries. It may open up inquiry past the small world that God may provide, so that we can continue to increase our knowledge past the boundaries of religion.

God is not literally dead, but the boundaries of religion have decomposed to open up our universe past the periphery of the horizon. Our religious traditions have become meaningless, because we can not lose the knowledge we have gained and can no longer hold God truly in our hearts. Therefore, he is dead to us. Though we have “done it to ourselves,” we have yet to acknowledge nor see the enormity of our deed.

The biggest questions this parable brings to mind are who is the madman? Why is he “mad?” Is it because he is the only one who acknowledges the death of God? Does Nietzsche see the death of God as positive or negative? In what way would we need to “purify” ourselves?

I found this selection to be beautifully deep and poetic, and it brought many different ideas to mind. However, a piece as multifaceted as this really needs some context.