[45] With regards to the problem of knowledge Nietzsche warns of the danger in sending scholars to do the work of the individual. This mass of painful experience is for the adept to arrange. Nietzsche asserts this is something which one must approach oneself. The individual cannot rely on others to make such discoveries on one's behalf. As such he advocates for curiosity noting those that choose a defense of a truth receive nothing.
[46] Nietzsche proposes that Christianity today represents not a firm foundation but the slow suicide of reason. Faith is the sacrifice of freedom and pride at the expense of subjection (being subject to the control of another). He likens it to a form of self mutilation or slavery given it is a painful experience. It disregards the context and chronology that drives a free spirit. For this reason Nietzsche asserts modern man has moved beyond the terrible possibility of the God on the cross. As a slave revolts against nobles so his many sufferings in subsections caused him to revolt against noble morality.
[47] Nietzsche pathologies the religious mood with its prescriptions of solitude, fasting and sexual abstinence. Noting that sudden outbursts of sensualism and renunciation of the will is common both to the savage and civilised. Yet the religious mood is unique in its proliferation of absurdities and superstitions. So how is this negation of the will possible? Even in the most recent philosophy is the question mark of the religious crisis. What remains interesting in the religious mood is the appearance of a miracle; the succession of opposite conditions of the soul valued in morally opposed ways. People thought they could get a grip on the idea that the "bad man" became the "Saint". Yet didn't this happen because people believed in opposite moral evaluations and saw, allowed, and interpreted these opposites into the text and the facts? Perhaps the real miracle then is the failure of interpretation.
[48] Nietzsche suggests that unbelief has distinct meanings for Catholic and protestant countries. For the former it was a rebellion against the spirit of the race and the latter a return to such a spirit.
[49] Nietzsche explains his astonishment at the religiosity if the Greeks; noting it is a noble kind if man who stands before life in such a way. Later Nietzsche notes that as the rabble gained prominence fear grew over religion sowing the seeds of Christianity.
[50] Nietzsche notes that with regards to passion for God there are the mean spirited, honest hearted, and persistently irritating. Protestantism tends to fall in with the latter. He notes that there is an flavour of interlectual exultation and feminine tenderness that longs for the unity of the mystical and physical.
[51] Nietzsche asserts that mightiest men honour the Saint as they recognise the true strength of will; By honouring him, they honour something in themselves. Yet Nietzsche notes the saint also arouses suspicion given the unnatural self negation; as such the will to power is what causes man to stop and question him.
[52] Nietzsche asserts the Jewish old testament contains sayings and men like no other. He compares the western "Modern man" to a house trained animal. The taste for the old testament is a standard against which we judge the great and small. Nietzsche suggests that perhaps for some the new testament will appeal (with its odour of genuine, tender, petty spirit). Nietzsche suggests the greatest "sin in the spirit" is the binding of these books together.
[53] Nietzsche offers explanation for the decline of theism and rise of atheism. He notes that God does not hear and even if he did he would not know how to help. Nietzsche highlights that he seems incapable of communicating himself clearly. As such although the religious instinct grows vigorously, Nietzsche explains it rejects theism with profound distrust.
[54] Nietzsche explains that all modern philosophy has made an attack upon the concept of soul under the guise of the subject predicate distinction. Whilst it is anti-christian it is by no means anti-religious. One once believed in the soul as one believed in grammar; "I" is the condition "think" the predicate supposing a subject as cause. To resolve this "think" became the condition and "I" that synthesis made possible by thinking itself. Kant wished to prove that starting from the subject, the subject could not be proved nor the object (apparent existence of the subject). Therefore the soul may not have always been strange to kant.
[55] Nietzsche suggests a hierarchy of religious cruelty. This begins with the sacrifice of others beloved by the people this was the primitive period. Next they were required to sacrifice their stronger instincts their "nature" during the moral period. Finally when all had been sacrificed man sacrificed virtue and his god to worship gravity, magnetism and nothingness. Nietzsche asserts that the paradox of sacrificing God for nothingness was a profound wound man knows only too well.
[56] He who places himself beyond good and evil sees perhaps the other ideal: the ideal of the man full of life and exuberance. Who has learned to compromise and has things in order with what was and is. And enterally wishes to experience it again as it was and is recurrently.
[57] The world becomes more sharply focused; seems larger and more profound as mans insight into this world increases. New enigmas and new elements present themselves as a challenge to his intellect. Yet perhaps that which the intellect has exercised itself upon has only been the opportunity for its exercise. A childish game constructed by a childish mind. Perhaps that which has caused greatest suffering such as "God" and "sin" will seem to us nothing more than a child's plaything and pain to an old man. Yet perhaps this old man requires a new plaything or pain in the future. This is man as eternal child.
[58] Nietzsche suggests that inaction with a clean conscience is a feature of religion; that aristocratic sentiment that work is dishonouring to the body. Yet among these individuals are "free thinkers" that participate in religion where necessary out of duty to family or country but are indifferent: there is no time for religion it is a question of new business or pleasure. Then there are the pious that glean all they can from history without taking a step toward what might constitute piety. They avoid religious individuals and the trouble this brings. Childlike naivety is necessary for the scholar and his belief in his superiority over the religious; beyond before and above which he believes he has developed.
[59] Nietzsche asserts Anyone who has studied the world in depth will have realised men are superficial. It is the instinct to preserve oneself which teaches him to be false. Here and there one finds "pure forms" in the artist and philosopher. That only seek enjoyment in life by falsifying it (has it so disgusted them?) by its image being clarified, refined and deified. The Religious persons are the highest among their rank. Nietzsche suggests that man fears the discovery of truth before he is strong enough to hear it and the "life in God" is its pinicle; the artistic fear of incurable pessimism that causes entire culture to cleave to religion. Perhaps there is no more effective a means of making man beautiful than piety, given that by it he becomes so superficial, so good his appearance no longer offends.
[60] Nietzsche indicates that to love man for the sake of God is a noble misadventure.
[61] Nietzsche asserts the Philosopher employs religion as a means to discipline and educate in much the same way as he employs the political and economic context. Its influence varies according to those placed under its spell and protection. For the strong it is another means by which to overcome authority- a bond between subjects and rulers. With the former surrendering conscience to the latter. Religion is also a means by which the rulers obtain peace and immunity from the uglyness of politics. Through religion some subject ascend to rule by means of marital customs. It offers aspiration and the choicest interlectual tidbits such as solice and silence. Asceticism and puritanism are the means subjects achieve ascendancy. For the rest born to serve and in the service of general utility there is contentedness; there own aspects become endurable to them. Religion is an effective means by which to find satisfaction in a world within which it is difficult to live.
[62] Nietzsche asserts that religion should be utilised like politics and economics as tools of statecraft. When religion becomes an end in itself there is significant danger. Success in man is typically the exception rather than the rule given man is not yet properly adapted to his environment. The higher a type he represent the greater chance of failure; the law of irrationality manifest in man. Yet how can religion respond to a surpluss of failures? It responds by seeking to preserve whatever can be kept alive for the sake of the suffering population. By so doing it preserves that which should have perished, that which weakens man. Once this systemic preservation of the sick and suffering has taken place what next? It offers a revision of values in a self-destructive fashion; reframing higher man as an unconscionable monster. This was the mission of the church to lead man to suspect every autonomous instinct that might otherwise lead him to greatness. Its goal the sublime abortion of man. Such men are not worthy enough nor strong enough to be the artist of man and sculpt him accordingly. Such individuals have produced the laudible and gregarious dwarfen species we see today.
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