Nietzsche: God Is Dead

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in 1882.To understand what the German philosopher meant; and what he thought of men, morality, and society as a whole, we collaborated with professor Stephen Hicks on this Sprouts special series.

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COLLABORATORS
Script: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Matt Abbott
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Production: Selina Bador
Production Assistant: Bianka
Proofreading: Susan
Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda

Special thanks to Prof.Stephen Hicks for collaborating with us o this project.

SOUNDTRACKS
Argonne - Zachariah Hickman
Nice Toys - Aaron Kenny
A Baroque Letter

DIG DEEPER

SOURCES
Egoism in Nietzsche and Rand by Stephen R.C.Hicks (PAGE 20)

CLASSROOM EXERCISE
Have you heard of Nietzsche before watching our video? Do you think his ideas apply to 21st century society? Discuss it among friends, family, in school, or let us know in the comments below.

Timestamp
0:00 Introduction
0:28 God is dead
0:51 Religion
3:37 Socialism
5:07 Similarity of Religion and Socialism
5:58 Friedrich Nietzsche
6:47 Ending

[raymondtendau]

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
‐Fredrich Nietzsche

[jannetteberends]

An old joke,
Nietzsche: God is dead.
God: so is Nietzsche.

[paule.]

Nietzsche has to be the most misunderstood philosopher of all times. His ideas were way ahead of his time, still they feel ahead of our time. Such an interesting character, I would've loved to be friends with this guy.

[nlyThis]

"Must we not make gods of ourselves simply to appear worthy of it?"
Friedrich Nietzsche

[DemetriPanici]

Nietzche is one of the most interesting philosophers of all time

[mystuff]

Thank you, sprouts, for the last part. I went to the same school as Nietzsche and already learned a lot about his work when I was 16. It still bothers me that he is often demonized because his sister edited and plainly forged parts of his work which was later used by the Nazis. Looking forward to part 2!

[agnosticpagan]

Nietzche in a nutsell: Eventually, the child becomes an adult, or the apprentice becomes the master. In order to make that transition, one has to validate one's experience based on their interactions, not the tales or stories of one's parents, one's boss, or any other authority figure, whether terrestrial or celestial. No one else can authentic your experience but yourself. Nietzsche rightly stated that Western culture (and many others) doesn't prepare anyone to make that transition, so it takes the 'brave and the bold' to step up and validate what is 'good', or 'evil, or transcends both.
The worst aspect that Nietzsche detested was how much culture actively resisted people from the transition/transcendence, actively encouraging subservience and obedience.

And the best way to learn authenticity, to be able to validate one's experience? Learn to dance! Learn music, art, science. Be creative and critical and curious. And the attitude and skills will develop accordingly.

[JaySlay]

Nietzsche was actually born in 1844, not 1884 like you say at around 6:00. You should mention this in your video in order to avoid confusion. Otherwise a great video!

[estebanhenriquez]

I am not particularly familiar with whom Nietzsche is. Unfortunately, the few times this gentleman’s name came across, a negative tone towards his ideology soon followed. Therefore, I’d have to research who he is and what he stood for before I weigh in on the matter.

[danidavid]

Nietzsche is my teacher... through his teaching i got into philosophy

[kellyyork]

I read Nietzsche’s works in high school. People though I was weird, but many of his ideas have shaped the beliefs I hold today.

[juliancalero]

I have an issue with the video and it's the characterisation that the politics of hope (socialism) is about avoiding the painful truths of life when instead it sees the pain caused by an unjust and exploitative system and addressing the root cause by asking why there is pain to begin with. Pain exists to tell us what not to do again and if you're in chronic pain then it is a disability. If this is the case for people then it's not a big leap to use the same framework to analyse systems. Religion asks us to do nothing as paradise is there to those who wait and sacrifice ourselves to the meat grinder while socialism tells us that a better world can exist if we fight for it

[Sarcastrich]

We need more philosophy videos please!

[piedpiper]

So happy to see Nietzsche correctly described as harshly critiquing anti-semites.

Saying Nietzsche is anti-Semitic is like saying a diabetic is anti-donut. The problem is with a more fundamental element: religiosity’s prescription of submission. He critiqued all major religions and religion-like social movements.

[maplebob]

Thank Sprouts. With this presenter’s nice baritone voice, this episode could be turned into an opera!

[backslash]

Strange how he had a moral code based on no standard other than himself. What was his solution to god being dead or socialism?

[atomspalter]

I don't believe in any form of god or religion. I believe being nice to people and making earth a better place than it would be without me is the best way to live because if everyone provides added value to earth/society the world can only get better.
I don't need religion to give me rules and authority. Religions don't evolve the way my view of the world around me does.
Thank you for the video. Very inspiring

[ThomasHiensch]

Very interesting. In my humble opinion though, God is not dead.

[hlicj]

God is dead implies we have lost our guardian and it is all up to ourselves. Would we search for another master or would we accept the challenge and do our best to our own ability? History has shown that what happened was that people found another less benevolent master in the state -- the rise of authoritarian regimes (communism/socialism, national socialism, fascism) that all argued for a strong state at the expense of the individual. Many are still not trusting themselves and crave the protection of a strong state, but that state might not be as benevolent as they think, or as competent as is necessary for real benevolence. Do we dare to trust ourselves more, grow up and be responsible as free individuals as our own masters?

[WarioSaysSo]

I understand the point of view. BUT God is NOT dead. He never was and never will be. God is with-out time. If reading the scriptures, God took a step backwards to observe and not make the same amounts of interference with the lifes we humans as he did in the old days.
That doesent mean that God is gone, but demands that we take responsibility over our free will he gave us. If God would do all, we would not learn and prove ourselfs to be good.
So many times people say "How or why do God allow this war happen?" - Then the real question is "Why do we do these things?" Why do we all ow it from our selfs to happen? God is like a parent who expects that we can take responsibility and learn from our mistakes and do better. That could be said is common sence!