It was a philosopher named Nietzsche (1844-1900) who first coined the phrase, 'God is dead'. This statement was a very controversial one to make at the time and would remain to be a very controversial and blasphemous contention to many today. Of course this statement and others like it were rubbished and condemned by the religious leaders of the time, but were they right to attack Nietzsche so aggressively? Nietzsche was not talking on a literal sense with regards to the death of God as that, by definition, can't be true of a God. Nietzsche's point was that the God, who he believed was created by man, had outgrown his or her use and had become obsolete. By being without a function in society people had decided that God no longer served a purpose worthy of maintaining the elaborate illusion that had been erected to answer the unanswerable questions. Science had filled in the gaps and all of God's uses were dead. However, there are those who were not convinced by the new religion of science, but even for some of them God had died. God is dead in the lives of so many people. Not necessarily bad people. People who have been turned off by a God eager to cast them into eternal hellfire for failing to visit Him on Sunday, for arguing with one's parents, committing blasphemy or even masturbation. God is dead in the hearts of so many. Not evil people. People disgusted by a God of "love" who encourages crusades, inquisitions, religious wars, and nuclear warfare to crush infidels, heretics, and atheists. How could anyone love a God like that? Why did this God not protect its own creations? People had stopped believing the myths and dogma that had been set up from sources such as the bible and ancient scriptures. The answers that 'it is God's will' or that 'it is all part of God's plan' were not enough.
It is perhaps more important to ensure that we know what or who God is. Are all the facets of God and the theories we hear about his existence based on any reality? Has God been defaced by the misinterpretations of the very people supposed to be promoting his image and his teachings? If there are such things as Gods, do humans have the right interpretation of them? Perhaps we have been so misled and misunderstanding about God and our own creation. It may well be that humanity was an evolutionary accident or perhaps it was a plan so complex that it had to be created by an 'intelligent' being either way we are unlikely to be able to comprehend the God that created us. Likewise, is it comprehensible that the intricate and masterful instrument that is our human body could have been planned? Just as the fish we place in a bowl is incapable of understanding the man that created its environment perhaps we are plainly ignorant of the being that created us. Science lays our existence down to chance and perhaps this may be true. However, if this is true where did our concepts, our morality and most unusually our spirituality come from? Some would say that the human ideals and reasoning are not learnt or instigated by environment but that they came directly from a creator. The religious believe that morality and ethics are passed down as instincts from our divine creator, but is an atheist therefore incapable of knowing right from wrong? Does their disbelief remove their instinct? The Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans all had their numerous gods with each one allied different groups and regions. As Christianity spread these gods were incorporated into Christian faith and were slowly abolished and replaced by the figure we know today as God or Allah. Religions don't all have the same god; some remain to have many different gods with each one being allied to a different segment of nature or life. Buddhism follows the teaching of one enlightened individual seeking to allow individuals to open themselves up and to become enlightened, with the hope of reaching a level of spirituality where calmness and serenity are dominant.
However, even in this time of scientific revelation the most powerful country in the world still has the motto, 'In God we trust'. At times of crisis those in power ask people to pray to God and hope for forgiveness. Even when those accused of atrocities and suffering stand before a jury of their peers and the officers of the law, it is still the bible and the allegiance to God that they swear upon. This God whom we pay so much homage to and rely upon in our great time of need is not a being, it is not something material or even accepted by the majority of people. God is a safety blanket that civilised man has begun to shed and discard. Only when we have no other option do we turn to God. When we consider life unfair, we expect God to help us and alleviate our suffering. As the questions we can't answer are diminished in number and our understanding increases the need for a God to explain the unexplainable has dissipated. Humans have shaped God into their own image; God has no form yet we perceive him to be like us. The laws of science and physics dominate the universe and allow it to be continually developmental. Do these laws operate solely on chance or is the whole existence of life just one enormous lucky break. We now know that man has not always been on earth as we were supposed to believe from Genesis. We have evolved and striven to survive. Yet why are humans so advanced in comparison to the species that surround us? How have we sculpted our marks on earth when other animals seem so primitive but are more capable than we are to survive? We are a naturally fragile and complex species with a body that we still don't entirely understand but we appear to be so dominant over species of animals far better prepared for life against the elements. Why are we so advanced? We have been given the power of freewill that as the bible declares came when our ancestors, 'Adam and Eve', took a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This understanding of the power of good and evil and the ability to understand was what God ultimately punished us for by casting humans out of Eden. Why would he do this, is knowledge worthy of the loss of paradise? Our power of freewill is often the excuse that is given to us about the wrongs of our society, the reason behind war, greed, jealousy and many of the other negative aspects of humanity. This is the reason why the all-powerful God chooses to not interfere when our nations are at war or are committing acts of genocide. But is it even possible to believe that a creator who is 'wholly good' could possibly allow this. The concept is ridiculous.
It could be argued that an omnipotent God would set the record straight and teach his creations to be of sound judgement, mind and spirit. Surely an all-knowing God would not persecute his creations or allow the destruction of his finest work; the earth. However, these factors add up to the ideal concept that humans exist only by chance and that there is no greater purpose for us than to breed and multiply. Our greatest power is our brains and our imagination. Humans are desperately seeking a reason behind our own existence. To simply state that we are accidental and as relevant to existence as the most minute and "dumb" organism is an insult. We are arrogant due to the high idea that we have about ourselves. Our existence is meaningless to everything other than ourselves. The time we spend on this earth is of no value to anyone or anything other than the propagation of our DNA to the rest of our species.
The contradictions, the history and the development of our personal understanding have led to the death of God. God is dead and we killed him. A God existed as an explanation for those incapable of knowing any better. Friedrich von Logau the German poet and writer said:
'God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters'.
It is for these reasons that people have truly turned against the Godly and divine who perceive themselves as the saved and the superior. As our knowledge is increased the questions concerning God and his existence grow. Those who follow God are mocked and ridiculed whereas they were once the powerful and the majority. However, it is the usual case that those who mock them are actually jealous of a faith so strong and so full of hope. Those who follow the deductive view claim that God is wholly good and omnipotent. However, the existence of evil forms an illogical relationship with these two statements that are considered to be entirely true by those with strong theological beliefs. A wholly good God could not tolerate evil and the two could not coexist nor could a God of this kind create an instrument of evil just as he is expected to have done with Satan. Although, there are those with religious belief who associate themselves with the probabilistic concept, which accepts that as evil exists on earth in abundance that the likelihood of there being a God is small. Thirdly, there is the atheological group who from the outset believe the concept of God to be incoherent. It is argued that without evidence strongly supporting the existence of God that people should fall back upon the opinion of atheism. However, the word atheism is misunderstood by so many people and refers to the lack of any possible existence of a God and not the indecision that comes from those who consider themselves agnostic until either one side or the other is proven absolutely. But is belief enough of a reason for God to exist. I am sure that each and every one of us would love to believe that there was an all-knowing, entirely good being that created us and is in some way caring for us. Everyone would love to go to a heaven if there was one and live in eternal comfort and happiness, but the odds are simply against it. Just as Christianity abolished the gods of other religions and peoples science has killed the God that we once believed in. As the educated west has its beliefs become allied to fact and logicality the underdeveloped and suffering Asian and African continents watch the numbers of Christian believers continue to grow. Religion serves only as a source of hope when we are faced with adversity. When fate affects human beings our dependence upon a protective God can be either shattered or it can be the source of strength, which pulls us through.
In summation it is apparent that faith and belief is far more important than truth. The source of our beliefs and our feelings are our ignorance and accidental evolutionary intelligence. Belief in God is a positive and hopeful thing. It may be incorrect or it may be well placed and it is a feeling that can only be judged by oneself. Our need for reason and understanding is perhaps our biggest asset and our biggest flaw.
Quotes made about God and his relationship with humanity
Milton, John
Paradise Lost, Bk. I, 1667
God is dead: but considering the state the species Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844 - 1900)
German philosopher. Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft, Bk. III
God is a gentleman. He prefers blondes.
Orton, Joe (1933 - 1967) British dramatist. Loot, II, 1965
One on God's side is a majority.
Both theists and atheists are equally as ignorant as one another are, whilst the agnostic sits on the fence and is indecisive about their beliefs and their purpose. I have no doubt that everyone in this room will fall into one of each of these groups to varying degrees. God is dead to humanity irrespective of whether one believed in him or not.