Atheism: Encyclopedia II - Atheism - Three famous atheists: Freud Marx and Nietzsche

Atheism - Three famous atheists: Freud Marx and Nietzsche

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- From the less analytic tradition, there are three major atheist thinkers. MacIntyre notes in "The Religious Significance of Atheism" (1969) that the first two (Freud and Marx) both had quite conservative morals and would have been horrified to see what atrocities were later to be justified by their ideas. In the case of Freud, the atrocities are the way psychoanalysis sometimes led to the mistreatment of the handicapped and in the case of Marx they would be the horrors of Stalinist Russia. - - Freud was keen to describe religion as an illusion. This is different from a "delusion," which is a belief in something which is simply not true. Freud believed that though religion served certain purposes, science might provide something better. He compares the illusion of religion to the illusion of a girl who believes strongly that she will one day be proposed to by a prince. The girl may, as yet, turn out to be right - but it is unlikely. (Freud "Future Of An Illusion" (1962)) - - Marx invented the concept of communism and saw this as a way of freeing the opressed. He presumes that God does not exist before he begins, but then asserts that God is a system taken on by the ruling classes and used to affirm their position in society over the masses. (Lecture from Phillip Goodchild 2004 - Senior Theology Lecturer, Nottingham University) - - Nietzsche's father was a Lutheran preacher, but died when he was still young. Nietzsche made many arguments against Christianity on the grounds that it misused morality. He did not just claim as George Eliot did, that Christianity had a few immoral aspects (such as considering that unchristened babies would go to hell if they died). Rather, Nietzsche claimed that Christianity's whole moral system was flawed. (Alistair Kee, "Nietzsche against the crucified" (1937)) - - Nietzsche claims that Christianity works on a 'slave morality,' or a morality of the herd as he sometimes calls it. Within this view the poor, sick and helpless become noble, while the noble, strong, and the wealthy are bad. This Nietzsche believes to promote a suffocation of any attempts at acheivement, of what Nietzsche calls 'the will to power'. (Friedrich Nietzsche "The Anti-Christ" translation by RJ Hollingdale (1990)) - - As a result, Nietzsche, in a country plagued by anti-semitism, claims (in contrast to Kant who Nietzsche believed to be overrated), that the Old Testament is better than the New Testament (The Antichrist - see previous reference). Nietzsche despised German nationalists (who were often fans of Kant) (Kee - see reference above) - - Often people assume that Nietzsche wanted to establish a brutal heartless morality like that of the Third Reich. Nietzsche's dismissal of "pity" is often thought of as a sign of this. But Nietzsche meant pity in the sense of feeling sorry for someone when there is nothing that can be done for them. This can be seen in Nietzsche's death. Nietzsche died trying to shield a horse from a cruel whipping. As Nietzsche pulled the horse away from the whip he ended up pulling it onto himself. Those are not the actions of a heartless man.... (Kee) - - Nietzsche's philosophy insists that the death of God affirms human life. Now that 'God is dead' Nietzsche claims under the guise of Zarathustra the superman to live (Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" translated by RJ Hollingdale 1969). The superman is like a more down-to-earth messiah figure. Unlike Jesus who is considered unsurpassable (while being a poor beggar who was eventually killed by his own people (Antichrist)) the superman is considered possible, but not in our lifetime. The superman is characterised by the peak of human imagination and Nietzsche was careful not to describe what the superman would be like. - - Nietzsche essentially proposes a spirituality without God and gives good reasons why a life without God is better.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Three famous atheists: Freud Marx and Nietzsche", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki