These petty bigots err in their
calculations and in the most important thing of all.
calculations and in the most important thing of all.
Nietzsche - v16 - Twilight of the Idols
.
. . Even
what he himself did not believe, was believed in by
the idiots among whom he spread his doctrine. -
What he wanted was power"; with St Paul the priest
again aspired to power,- he could make use only of
concepts, doctrines, symbols with which masses may
be tyrannised over, and with which herds are formed. "
What was the only part of Christianity which was
subsequently borrowed by Muhamed ? St Paul s
invention, his expedient for priestly tyranny and to
the formation of herds: the belief in immortality-
that is to say, the doctrine of the “ Last Judgment. "
a
Il Power
43
When the centre of gravity of life is laid, not in
life, but in a beyond-in nonentity,-life is utterly
robbed of its balance. The great lie of personal
immortality destroys all reason, all nature in the
instincts,—everything in the instincts that is bene-
ficent, that promotes life and that is a guarantee
## p. 186 (#206) ############################################
186
THE ANTICHRIST
.
of the future, henceforward aroused suspicion.
The very meaning of life is now construed as the
effort to live in such a way that life no longer has
any point. . . . Why show any public spirit? Why
be grateful for one's origin and one's forebears ?
Why collaborate with one's fellows, and be confi-
dent? Why be concerned about the general weal
or strive after it? . . . All these things are merely
so many “temptations," so many deviations from the
“straight path. ” “One thing only is necessary. ”
That everybody, as an “immortal soul,” should have
equal rank, that in the totality of beings, the “sal-
vation” of each individual may lay claim to eternal
importance, that insignificant bigots and three-
quarter-lunatics may have the right to suppose that
the laws of nature may be persistently broken on
their account,—any such magnification of every
kind of selfishness to infinity, to insolence, cannot
be branded with sufficient contempt. And yet it
is to this miserable flattery of personal vanity that
Christianity owes its triumph,—by this means it
lured all the bungled and the botched, all revolt-
ing and revolted people, all abortions, the whole
the refuse and offal of humanity, over to its side.
The “salvation of the soul”-in plain English:
“the world revolves around me. ” The poison
of the doctrine “equal rights for all”—has been
dispensed with the greatest thoroughness by Christi-
anity: Christianity, prompted by the most secret
recesses of bad instincts, has waged a deadly war
upon all feeling of reverence and distance between
man and man—that is to say, the prerequisite of
all elevation, of every growth in culture; out of
## p. 187 (#207) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
187
the resentment of the masses it wrought its princi-
pal weapons against us, against everything noble,
joyful, exalted on earth, against our happiness on
earth. . . . To grant“ immortality” to every St Peter
and St Paul, was the greatest, the most vicious out-
rage upon noble humanity that has ever been perpe-
trated. And do not let us underestimate the fatal
influence which, springing from Christianity, has
insinuated itself even into politics! Nowadays no
one has the courage of special rights, of rights of
dominion, of a feeling of self-respect and of respect
for his equals,—of pathos of distance. Our politics
are diseased with this lack of courage ! —The aristo-
cratic attitude of mind has been most thoroughly
undermined by the lie of the equality of souls ;
and if the belief in the “privilege of the greatest
number” creates and will continue to create revolu-
tions,—it is Christianity, let there be no doubt
about it, and Christian values, which convert every
revolution into blood and crime! Christianity is
the revolt of all things that crawl on their bellies
against everything that is lofty : the gospel of the
“lowly” lowers.
-د
X
44
-The Gospels are invaluable as a testimony of
the corruption which was already persistent within
the first Christian communities. That which St
Paul, with the logician's cynicism of a Rabbi, carried
to its logical conclusion, was nevertheless merely
the process of decay which began with the death of
the Saviour. —These gospels cannot be read too
cautiously; difficulties lurk behind every word they
## p. 188 (#208) ############################################
188
THE ANTICHRIST
contain. I confess, and people will not take this
amiss, that they are precisely on that account a joy
of the first rank for a psychologist,—as the reverse
of all naïve perversity, as refinement par excellence,
as a masterpiece of art in psychological corruption.
The gospels stand alone. Altogether the Bible
allows of no comparison. The first thing to be
remembered if we do not wish to lose the scent here,
is, that we are among Jews. The dissembling of
holiness which, here, literally amounts to genius,
and which has never been even approximately
achieved elsewhere either by books or by men, this
fraud in word and pose which in this book is
elevated to an Art, is not the accident of any
individual gift, of any exceptional nature. These
qualities are a matter of race. With Christianity,
the art of telling holy lies, which constitutes the
whole of Judaism, reaches its final mastership, thanks
to many centuries of Jewish and most thoroughly
serious training and practice. The Christian, this
ultima ratio of falsehood, is the Jew over again-he
is even three times a Jew. The fundamental
will only to make use of concepts, symbols and
poses, which are demonstrated by the practice of
the priests, the instinctive repudiation of every other
kind of practice, every other standpoint of valuation
and of utility — all this is not only tradition, it is
hereditary : only as an inheritance is it able to work
like nature. The whole of mankind, the best brains,
and even the best ages—(one man only excepted
who is perhaps only a monster)—have allowed them-
selves to be deceived. The gospels were read as
the book of innocence . . . this is no insignificant
.
-
## p. 189 (#209) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
189
-
.
-
X
sign of the virtuosity with which deception has been
practised here. —Of course, if we could only succeed
in seeing all these amazing bigots and pretended
saints, even for a moment, all would be at an end-
and it is precisely because I can read no single word
of theirs, without seeing their pretentious poses,
that I have made an end of them. . . . I cannot
endure a certain way they have of casting their eyes
heavenwards. -Fortunately for Christianity, books
are for the greatest number, merely literature. We
must not let ourselves be led away : "judge not! ”
they say, but they dispatch all those to hell who
stand in their way. Inasmuch as they let God
do the judging, they themselves judge; inasmuch
as they glorify God, they glorify themselves, inas-
much as they exact those virtues of which they them-
selves happen to be capable
nay more, of which
they are in need in order to be able to remain on
top at all ;—they assume the grand airs of struggling
for virtue, of struggling for the dominion of virtue.
"We live, we die, we sacrifice ourselves for the
good” (-"the Truth,” “the Light,” “the Kingdom
of God”): as a matter of fact they do only what
they cannot help doing. Like sneaks they have to
play a humble part; sit away in corners, and remain
obscurely in the shade, and they make all this appear
a duty : their humble life now appears as a duty,
and their humility is one proof the more of their
piety, . . . Oh, what a humble, chaste and compas-
sionate kind of falsity! “Virtue itself shall bear us
testimony. ”. . . Only read the gospels as books
calculated to seduce by means of morality: morality
is appropriated by these petty people,—they know
## p. 190 (#210) ############################################
190
THE ANTICHRIST
.
»
what morality can do! The best way of leading
mankind by the nose is with morality! The fact is
that the most conscious conceit of people who believe
themselves to be chosen, here simulates modesty :
in this way they, the Christian community, the
“good and the just ” place themselves once and for
all on a certain side, the side “of Truth”—and the
rest of mankind, "the world” on the other.
This was the most fatal kind of megalomania that
had ever yet existed on earth: insignificant little
abortions of bigots and liars began to lay sole claim
to the concepts “God,” “Truth”. “ Light,” “Spirit,"
,
“Love,” “Wisdom,” “Life," as if these things were,
so to speak, synonyms of themselves, in order to
fence themselves off from “the world”; little ultra-
Jews, ripe for every kind of madhouse, twisted values
round in order to suit themselves, just as if the
Christian, alone, were the meaning, the salt, the
standard and even the “ultimate tribunal” of all
the rest of mankind. . . . The whole fatality was
rendered possible only because a kind of megalo-
mania, akin to this one and allied to it in race,-
the Jewish kind—was already to hand in the world :
the very moment the gulf between Jews and Judæo-
Christians was opened, the latter had no alternative
left, but to adopt the same self-preservative measures
as the Jewish instinct suggested, even against the
Jews themselves, whereas the Jews, theretofore, had
employed these same measures only against the
Gentiles. The Christian is nothing more than an
anarchical Jew.
45
-Let me give you a few examples of what these
## p. 191 (#211) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
191
1
evangelical! lo
resintomo
vengeful
paltry people have stuffed into their heads, what
they have laid on the lips of their Master: quite
a host of confessions from “beautiful souls. ".
“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear
you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust
under your feet for a testimony against them.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judg-
ment, than for that city. ” (Mark vi. 11. )—How
92
“And whosoever shall offend one of these little
ones that believe in me, it is better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he
were cast into the sea. " (Mark ix. 42. )—How
evangelical ! . .
“And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God
with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into
hell fire : where their worm dieth not, and the fire
is not quenched. ” (Mark ix. 47, 48. )—The eye is not
precisely what is meant in this passage.
“Verily I say unto you, That there be some of
them that stand here, which shall not taste of death,
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with
power. ” (Mark ix. 1. )—Well lied, lion ! *
“Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For
(A psychologist's comment. Christian
morality is refuted by its “For's”: its reasons”
refute,—this is Christian. ) (Mark viii. 34. )
(.
* An adaptation of Shakespeare's “Well roared, lion
(Mid. N, D. , Act 5, Sc. i. ), the lion, as is well known, being
the symbol for St Mark in Christian literature and Art. --TR.
X
X
.
## p. 192 (#212) ############################################
192
THE ANTICHRIST
t
1
+
.
t
+
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. '
(Matthew vii. I, 2. )—What a strange notion of
justice on the part of a "just" judge! .
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward
have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye
more than others ? do not even the publicans so? "
(Matthew v. 46, 47. ) The principle of “Christian
love”: it insists upon being well paid.
“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ”
(Matthew vi. 15. )—Very compromising for the
“ Father” in question.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
"
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you. ” (Matthew vi. 33. )—“All these things. ”
—that is to say, food, clothing, all the necessities
of life. To use a moderate expression, this is an
error. Shortly before this God appears as a
tailor, at least in certain cases. . .
“Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for,
behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the
like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. ”
(Luke vi. 23. )—Impudent rabble! They dare to
compare themselves with the prophets. . .
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are. ” (St Paul, 1 Corinthians iii. 16, 17. )
"
-One cannot have too much contempt for this
sort of things
-
## p. 193 (#213) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
193
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the
world? and if the world shall be judged by you,
are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ?
(St Paul, 1 Corinthians vi. 2. )—Unfortunately this is
not merely the speech of a lunatic. . . . This appal-
ling impostor proceeds thus : “Know ye not that we
shall judge angels? how much more things that
pertain to this life? ”
“Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe . . . not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called: But
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty; And base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen ; yea,
and things which are not, to bring to nought things
that are: That no flesh should glory in his pre-
sence. ” (St Paul, 1 Corinthians i. 20 et seq. )-In
order to understand this passage, which is of the
highest importance as an example of the psychology
of every Chandala morality, the reader should refer
to my Genealogy of Morals : in this book, the con-
trast between a noble and a Chandala morality
born of resentment and impotent revengefulness, is
brought to light for the first time. St Paul was the
greatest of all the apostles of revenge.
X
46
What follows from this? That one does well to
13
## p. 194 (#214) ############################################
194
THE ANTICHRIST
»
put on one's gloves when reading the New Testa-
ment. The proximity of so much pitch almost
defiles one. We should feel just as little inclined to
hobnob with “the first Christians” as with Polish
Jews : not that we need explain our objections.
They 'simply smell bad. —In vain have I sought for
a single sympathetic feature in the New Testament;
there is not a trace of freedom, kindliness, open-
heartedness and honesty to be found in it. Humane-
ness has not even made a start in this book, while
cleanly instincts are entirely absent from it. . . .
Only evil instincts are to be found in the New
Testament, it shows no sign of courage, these people
lack even the courage of their evil instincts. All is
cowardice, all is a closing of one's eyes and self-
deception. Every book becomes clean, after one
has just read the New Testament: for instance, im-
mediately after laying down St Paul, I read with
particular delight that most charming and most
wanton of scoffers, Petronius, of whom someone
might say what Domenico Boccaccio wrote to the
Duke of Parma about Cæsar Borgia : “è tutto festo”
-immortally healthy, immortally cheerful and well-
constituted. . . .
These petty bigots err in their
calculations and in the most important thing of all.
They certainly attack; but everything they assail
is, by that very fact alone, distinguished. He whom
a "primitive Christian” attacks, is not thereby
sullied. . . . Conversely it is an honour to be
opposed by “primitive Christians. ” One cannot
read the New Testament without feeling a prefer-
ence for everything in it which is the subject of
abuse—not to speak of the “wisdom of this world,”
)
## p. 195 (#215) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
195
which an impudent windbag tries in vain to con-
found " by the foolishness of preaching. " Even the
Pharisees and the Scribes derive advantage from
such opposition: they must certainly have been
worth something in order to have been hated in such
a disreputable way. Hypocrisy—as if this were a
reproach which the “first Christians” were at liberty
to make ! —After all the Scribes and Pharisees were
the privileged ones: this was quite enough, the hatred
of the Chandala requires no other reasons. I very
much fear that the “first Christian”-as also the
“last Christian" whom I may yet be able to meet,-
is in his deepest instincts a rebel against everything
privileged; he lives and struggles unremittingly for
"equal rights”! . . . Regarded more closely, he
has no alternative. . . . If one's desire be person-
ally to represent “one of the chosen of God”_or
a “temple of God,” or “a judge of angels,”—then
”
every other principle of selection, for instance that
based upon a standard of honesty, intellect, manli-
ness and pride, or upon beauty and freedom of heart,
becomes the “world,”—evil in itself. Moral: every
word on the lips of a “first Christian” is a lie, every
action he does is an instinctive falsehood,-all his
values, all his aims are pernicious; but the man he
hates, the thing he hates, has value, . . . The Chris-
tian, more particularly the Christian priest, is a
criterion of values--Do I require to add that in the
whole of the New Testament only one figure appears
which we cannot help respecting? Pilate, the Roman
Governor. To take a Jewish quarrel seriously was
a thing he could not get himself to do. One Jew
more or less—what did it matter? . . . The noble
a
## p. 196 (#216) ############################################
196
THE ANTICHRIST
scorn of a Roman, in whose presence the word
"truth” had been shamelessly abused, has enriched
the New Testament with the only saying which is
of value,—and this saying is not only the criticism,
but actually the shattering of that Testament:
“What is truth! ”
.
47
-That which separates us from other people is
not the fact that we can discover no God, either in
history, or in nature, or behind nature,—but that we
regard what has been revered as “God," not as
“divine,” but as wretched, absurd, pernicious; not
as an error, but as a crime against life. . . . We
deny God as God. . . . If the existence of this
Christian God were proved to us, we should feel even
less able to believe in him. -In a formula : deus
qualem Paulus creavit, dei negatio. —A religion such
as Christianity which never once comes in touch
with reality, and which collapses the very moment
reality asserts its rights even on one single point,
must naturally be a mortal enemy of the “wisdom
of this world”-that is to say, science. It will call
all those means good with which mental discipline,
lucidity and severity in intellectual matters, nobility
and freedom of the intellect may be poisoned, calum-
niated and decried. “Faith” as an imperative is
a veto against science,-in praxi, it means lies at
any price. St Paul understood that falsehood—that
“ faith” was necessary; subsequently the Church
understood St Paul. - That “God” which St Paul
invented for himself, a God who “confounds” the
“wisdom of this world” (in a narrower sense, the
-
## p. 197 (#217) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
197
two great opponents of all superstition, philology
and medicine)
, means, in very truth, simply St Paul's
firm resolve to do so: to call his own will “God”,thora,
that is arch-Jewish. St Paul insists upon confound-
ing the “wisdom of this world”: his enemies are the
good old philologists and doctors of the Alexandrine
schools; it is on them that he wages war.
As a
matter of fact no one is either a philologist or a
doctor, who is not also an Antichrist. As a philolo-
gist, for instance, a man sees behind the “holy
books," as a doctor he sees behind the physiological
rottenness of the typical Christian. The doctor
says “incurable,” the philologist says “forgery. ”
48
-Has anybody ever really understood the cele-
brated story which stands at the beginning of the
Bible, --concerning God's deadly panic over science ?
. . Nobody has understood it. This essentially
sacerdotal book naturally begins with the great
inner difficulty of the priest: he knows only one
great danger, consequently “God” has only one
great danger. -
The old God, entirely “spirit,” a high-priest
through and through, and wholly perfect, is wander-
ing in a leisurely fashion round his garden ; but he
is bored. Against boredom even the gods them-
selves struggle in vain. * What does he do? He
invents man,-man is entertaining. . . . But, behold,
* A parody on a line in Schiller's "Jungfrau von Orleans ”
(Act 3, Sc. vi. ): “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst
vergebens" (With stupidity even the gods themselves.
struggle in vain). -- TR.
## p. 198 (#218) ############################################
198
THE ANTICHRIST
even man begins to be bored. God's compassion for
the only form of misery which is peculiar to all
paradises, exceeds all bounds: so forthwith he
creates yet other animals. God's first mistake: man
did not think animals entertaining,—he dominated
them, he did not even wish to be an “animal. "
Consequently God created woman. And boredom
did indeed cease from that moment,—but many
other things ceased as well! Woman was God's
second mistake. —“Woman in her innermost nature
is a serpent, Heva"-every priest knows this : “all
evil came into this world through woman. ”—every
priest knows this too. Consequently science also
comes from woman. Only through woman did
man learn to taste of the tree of knowledge. —What
had happened? Panic had seized the old God.
Man himself had been his greatest mistake, he had
created a rival for himself, science makes vou equal
to God,—it is all up with priests and gods when man
becomes scientific! —Moral: science is the most pro-
hibited thing of all,—it alone, is forbidden. Science
is the first, the germ of all sins, the original sin.
This alone is morality. —“Thou shalt not know":-
the rest follows as a matter of course. God's panic
did not deprive him of his intelligence. How can
one guard against science? For ages this was his
principal problem. Reply: man must be kicked
out of paradise! Happiness, leisure leads to think-
ing,—all thoughts are bad thoughts. . . . Man must
not think. And the “priest-per-se” proceeds to
invent distress, death, the vital danger of pregnancy,
every kind of misery, decrepitude, and affliction,
and above all disease, –all these are but weapons
)
## p. 199 (#219) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
199
employed in the struggle with science! Trouble
prevents man from thinking. . And notwith-
standing all these precautions ! Oh, horror! the
work of science towers aloft, it storms heaven itself,
it rings the death-knell of the gods,—what's to be
done ? _The old God invents war; he separates the
nations, and contrives to make men destroy each
other mutually (—the priests have always been in
need of war . . . ). War, among other things, is a
great disturber of science ! -- Incredible! Know-
ledge, the rejection of the sacerdotal yoke, nevertheless
increases. So the old God arrives at this final
decision : "Man has become scientific,—there is no
help for it, he must be drowned ! ”. . .
49
You have understood me. The beginning of the
Bible contains the whole psychology of the priest. -
The priest knows only one great danger, and that
is science,—the healthy concept of cause and effect.
But, on the whole,science flourishes only under happy
conditions,-a man must have time, he must also
have superfluous mental energy in order to "pursue
knowledge. " 'Consequently man must be made
unhappy,"—this has been the argument of the priest
of all ages. —You have already
divined what, in ac-
cordance with such a manner of arguing, must first
have come into the world :"sin. " The notion
of guilt and punishment, the whole "moral order of
the universe," was invented against science,-against
the deliverance of man from
the priest. . . . Man
must not cast his glance upon the outer world, he
must turn it inwards into himself; he must not as
## p. 200 (#220) ############################################
200
THE ANTICHRIST
a
a learner look cleverly and cautiously into things;
he must not see at all: he must suffer. . . . And
he must suffer, so that he may be in need of the
priest-every minute. --Away with doctors! What
is needed is a Saviour ! —The notion of guilt and
punishment, including the doctrine of “grace,” of
“salvation" and of “forgiveness ”—all lies through
and through without a shred of psychological reality
-were invented in order to destroy man's sense of
causality, they are an attack on the concept of cause
and effect ! -And not an attack with the fist, with
the knife, with honesty in hate and love! But one
actuated by the most cowardly, most crafty, and
most ignoble instincts! A priests attack! A para-
site's attack! A vampyrism of pale subterranean
leeches ! -. . . When the natural consequences of an
act are no longer “natural,” but are thought to be
conjured up by phantom concepts of superstition, by
“God," by“spirits,” and by “souls,” as merely moral
consequences, in the form of rewards, punishments,
hints, and educational means,—then the whole basis
of knowledge is destroyed, then the greatest crime
against man has been perpetrated. —Sin, I repeat, this
form of self-pollution par excellence on the part of
man, was invented in order to make science, culture
and every elevation and noble trait in man quite
impossible; by means of the invention of sin the
priest is able to rule.
50
-I cannot here dispense with a psychology of
“faith” and of the “faithful,” which will naturally
be to the advantage of the "faithful. ” If to-day there
## p. 201 (#221) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
201
)
are still many who do not know how very indecent. .
it is to be a “believer"-or to what extent such a
state is the sign of decadence, and of the broken will
to Life,--they will know it no later than to-morrow.
My voice can make even those hear who are hard
of hearing. If perchance my ears have not deceived
me, it seems that among Christians there is such a
thing as a kind of criterion of truth, which is called
"the proof of power. ” “Faith saveth ; therefore it is
true. ” — It might be objected here that it is precisely
salvation which is not proved but only promised :
salvation is bound up with the condition “faith,
one shall be saved, because one has faith. But
how prove that that which the priest promises
to the faithful really will take place, to wit: the
Beyond” which defies all demonstration ? - The
assumed "proof of power” is at bottom once again
only a belief in the fact that the effect which faith
promises will not fail to take place. In a formula :
"I believe that faith saveth ;---'consequently it is true.
But with this we are at the end of our tether. This
“consequently” would be the absurdum itself as a
criterion of truth. —Let us be indulgent enough to
assume, however, that salvation is proved by faith
(-not only desired, and not merely promised by the
somewhat suspicious lips of a priest): could salvation
-or, in technical terminology, happiness-ever be a
proof of truth? So little is it so that, when pleasur-
able sensations make their influence felt in replying
to the question "what is true,” they furnish almost
the contradiction of truth, or at any rate they
make it in the highest degree suspicious. The proof
.
through “happiness," is a proof of happiness—and
## p. 202 (#222) ############################################
202
THE ANTICHRIST
nothing else ; why in the world should we take it
for granted that true judgments cause more pleasure
than false ones, and that in accordance with a pre-
established harmony, they necessarily bring pleasant
feelings in their wake ? — The experience of all strict
and profound minds teaches the reverse. Every inch
of truth has been conquered only after a struggle,
almost everything to which our heart, our love and
our trust in life cleaves, has had to be sacrificed
for it. Greatness of soul is necessary for this : the
service of truth is the hardest of all services. What
then is meant by honesty in things intellectual ?
It means that a man is severe towards his own heart,
that he scorns “ beautiful feelings," and that he
makes a matter of conscience out of every Yea and
Nay! ---Faith saveth : consequently it lies. . . .
51
The fact that faith may in certain circumstances
save, the fact that salvation as the result of an idée
fire does not constitute a true idea, the fact that
faith moves no mountains, but may very readily
raise them where previously they did not exist-
all these things are made sufficiently clear by a
mere casual stroll through a lunatic asylum. Of
course no priest would find this sufficient : for he
instinctively denies that illness is illness or that
lunatic asylums are lunatic asylums. Christianity
is in need of illness, just as Ancient Greece was in
need of a superabundance of health. The actual
ulterior motive of the whole of the Church's system
of salvation is to make people ill. And is not the
Church itself the Catholic madhouse as an ultimate
;
## p. 203 (#223) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
203
ideal ? —The earth as a whole converted into a
madhouse? —The kind of religious man which the
Church aims at producing is a typical decadent. ,
The moment of time at which a religious crisis
attains the ascendancy over a people, is always
characterised by nerve-epidemics; the “inner
world” of the religious man is ridiculously like
the “inner world” of over-irritable and exhausted
people; the “highest” states which Christianity
holds up to mankind as the value of values, are
epileptic in character,—the Church has pronounced
only madmen or great swindlers in majorem dei
honorem holy. Once I ventured to characterise
the whole of the Christian training of penance and
salvation (which nowadays is best studied in Eng-
land) as a folie circulaire methodically generated
upon a soil which, of course, is already prepared
for it,—that is to say, which is thoroughly morbid.
Not every one who likes can be a Christian: no
man is
converted to Christianity,-he must be
sick enough for it. . We others who possess
enough courage both for health and for contempt,
how rightly we may despise a religion which taught
men to misunderstand the body! which would not
rid itself of the superstitions of the soul! which
made a virtue of taking inadequate nourishment !
which in health combats a sort of enemy, devil,
temptation! which persuaded itself that it was
possible to bear a perfect soul about in a cadaverous
body, and which, to this end, had to make up
for
itself a new concept of “perfection," a pale, sickly,
idiotically gushing ideal,-so-called “holiness,”-
holiness, which in itself is simply a symptom of
.
## p. 204 (#224) ############################################
204
THE ANTICHRIST
a
an impoverished, enervated and incurably deterio-
rated body! . . . The movement of Christianity,
as a European movement, was from first to last, a
general accumulation of the ruck and scum of all
sorts and kinds (and these, by means of Christi-
anity, aspire to power). It does not express the
downfall of a race, it is rather a conglomerate
assembly of all the decadent elements from every-
where which seek each other and crowd together.
It was not, as some believe, the corruption of
antiquity, of noble antiquity, which made Christi-
anity possible: the learned idiocy which nowadays
tries to support such a notion cannot be too severely
contradicted. At the time when the morbid and
corrupted Chandala classes became Christianised in
the whole of the imperium, the very contrary type,
nobility, was extant in its finest and maturest
forms. The greatest number became master; the
democracy of Christian instincts triumphed.
Christianity was not “national,” it was not deter-
mined by race,-it appealed to all the disinherited
forms of life, it had its allies everywhere.
. . Even
what he himself did not believe, was believed in by
the idiots among whom he spread his doctrine. -
What he wanted was power"; with St Paul the priest
again aspired to power,- he could make use only of
concepts, doctrines, symbols with which masses may
be tyrannised over, and with which herds are formed. "
What was the only part of Christianity which was
subsequently borrowed by Muhamed ? St Paul s
invention, his expedient for priestly tyranny and to
the formation of herds: the belief in immortality-
that is to say, the doctrine of the “ Last Judgment. "
a
Il Power
43
When the centre of gravity of life is laid, not in
life, but in a beyond-in nonentity,-life is utterly
robbed of its balance. The great lie of personal
immortality destroys all reason, all nature in the
instincts,—everything in the instincts that is bene-
ficent, that promotes life and that is a guarantee
## p. 186 (#206) ############################################
186
THE ANTICHRIST
.
of the future, henceforward aroused suspicion.
The very meaning of life is now construed as the
effort to live in such a way that life no longer has
any point. . . . Why show any public spirit? Why
be grateful for one's origin and one's forebears ?
Why collaborate with one's fellows, and be confi-
dent? Why be concerned about the general weal
or strive after it? . . . All these things are merely
so many “temptations," so many deviations from the
“straight path. ” “One thing only is necessary. ”
That everybody, as an “immortal soul,” should have
equal rank, that in the totality of beings, the “sal-
vation” of each individual may lay claim to eternal
importance, that insignificant bigots and three-
quarter-lunatics may have the right to suppose that
the laws of nature may be persistently broken on
their account,—any such magnification of every
kind of selfishness to infinity, to insolence, cannot
be branded with sufficient contempt. And yet it
is to this miserable flattery of personal vanity that
Christianity owes its triumph,—by this means it
lured all the bungled and the botched, all revolt-
ing and revolted people, all abortions, the whole
the refuse and offal of humanity, over to its side.
The “salvation of the soul”-in plain English:
“the world revolves around me. ” The poison
of the doctrine “equal rights for all”—has been
dispensed with the greatest thoroughness by Christi-
anity: Christianity, prompted by the most secret
recesses of bad instincts, has waged a deadly war
upon all feeling of reverence and distance between
man and man—that is to say, the prerequisite of
all elevation, of every growth in culture; out of
## p. 187 (#207) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
187
the resentment of the masses it wrought its princi-
pal weapons against us, against everything noble,
joyful, exalted on earth, against our happiness on
earth. . . . To grant“ immortality” to every St Peter
and St Paul, was the greatest, the most vicious out-
rage upon noble humanity that has ever been perpe-
trated. And do not let us underestimate the fatal
influence which, springing from Christianity, has
insinuated itself even into politics! Nowadays no
one has the courage of special rights, of rights of
dominion, of a feeling of self-respect and of respect
for his equals,—of pathos of distance. Our politics
are diseased with this lack of courage ! —The aristo-
cratic attitude of mind has been most thoroughly
undermined by the lie of the equality of souls ;
and if the belief in the “privilege of the greatest
number” creates and will continue to create revolu-
tions,—it is Christianity, let there be no doubt
about it, and Christian values, which convert every
revolution into blood and crime! Christianity is
the revolt of all things that crawl on their bellies
against everything that is lofty : the gospel of the
“lowly” lowers.
-د
X
44
-The Gospels are invaluable as a testimony of
the corruption which was already persistent within
the first Christian communities. That which St
Paul, with the logician's cynicism of a Rabbi, carried
to its logical conclusion, was nevertheless merely
the process of decay which began with the death of
the Saviour. —These gospels cannot be read too
cautiously; difficulties lurk behind every word they
## p. 188 (#208) ############################################
188
THE ANTICHRIST
contain. I confess, and people will not take this
amiss, that they are precisely on that account a joy
of the first rank for a psychologist,—as the reverse
of all naïve perversity, as refinement par excellence,
as a masterpiece of art in psychological corruption.
The gospels stand alone. Altogether the Bible
allows of no comparison. The first thing to be
remembered if we do not wish to lose the scent here,
is, that we are among Jews. The dissembling of
holiness which, here, literally amounts to genius,
and which has never been even approximately
achieved elsewhere either by books or by men, this
fraud in word and pose which in this book is
elevated to an Art, is not the accident of any
individual gift, of any exceptional nature. These
qualities are a matter of race. With Christianity,
the art of telling holy lies, which constitutes the
whole of Judaism, reaches its final mastership, thanks
to many centuries of Jewish and most thoroughly
serious training and practice. The Christian, this
ultima ratio of falsehood, is the Jew over again-he
is even three times a Jew. The fundamental
will only to make use of concepts, symbols and
poses, which are demonstrated by the practice of
the priests, the instinctive repudiation of every other
kind of practice, every other standpoint of valuation
and of utility — all this is not only tradition, it is
hereditary : only as an inheritance is it able to work
like nature. The whole of mankind, the best brains,
and even the best ages—(one man only excepted
who is perhaps only a monster)—have allowed them-
selves to be deceived. The gospels were read as
the book of innocence . . . this is no insignificant
.
-
## p. 189 (#209) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
189
-
.
-
X
sign of the virtuosity with which deception has been
practised here. —Of course, if we could only succeed
in seeing all these amazing bigots and pretended
saints, even for a moment, all would be at an end-
and it is precisely because I can read no single word
of theirs, without seeing their pretentious poses,
that I have made an end of them. . . . I cannot
endure a certain way they have of casting their eyes
heavenwards. -Fortunately for Christianity, books
are for the greatest number, merely literature. We
must not let ourselves be led away : "judge not! ”
they say, but they dispatch all those to hell who
stand in their way. Inasmuch as they let God
do the judging, they themselves judge; inasmuch
as they glorify God, they glorify themselves, inas-
much as they exact those virtues of which they them-
selves happen to be capable
nay more, of which
they are in need in order to be able to remain on
top at all ;—they assume the grand airs of struggling
for virtue, of struggling for the dominion of virtue.
"We live, we die, we sacrifice ourselves for the
good” (-"the Truth,” “the Light,” “the Kingdom
of God”): as a matter of fact they do only what
they cannot help doing. Like sneaks they have to
play a humble part; sit away in corners, and remain
obscurely in the shade, and they make all this appear
a duty : their humble life now appears as a duty,
and their humility is one proof the more of their
piety, . . . Oh, what a humble, chaste and compas-
sionate kind of falsity! “Virtue itself shall bear us
testimony. ”. . . Only read the gospels as books
calculated to seduce by means of morality: morality
is appropriated by these petty people,—they know
## p. 190 (#210) ############################################
190
THE ANTICHRIST
.
»
what morality can do! The best way of leading
mankind by the nose is with morality! The fact is
that the most conscious conceit of people who believe
themselves to be chosen, here simulates modesty :
in this way they, the Christian community, the
“good and the just ” place themselves once and for
all on a certain side, the side “of Truth”—and the
rest of mankind, "the world” on the other.
This was the most fatal kind of megalomania that
had ever yet existed on earth: insignificant little
abortions of bigots and liars began to lay sole claim
to the concepts “God,” “Truth”. “ Light,” “Spirit,"
,
“Love,” “Wisdom,” “Life," as if these things were,
so to speak, synonyms of themselves, in order to
fence themselves off from “the world”; little ultra-
Jews, ripe for every kind of madhouse, twisted values
round in order to suit themselves, just as if the
Christian, alone, were the meaning, the salt, the
standard and even the “ultimate tribunal” of all
the rest of mankind. . . . The whole fatality was
rendered possible only because a kind of megalo-
mania, akin to this one and allied to it in race,-
the Jewish kind—was already to hand in the world :
the very moment the gulf between Jews and Judæo-
Christians was opened, the latter had no alternative
left, but to adopt the same self-preservative measures
as the Jewish instinct suggested, even against the
Jews themselves, whereas the Jews, theretofore, had
employed these same measures only against the
Gentiles. The Christian is nothing more than an
anarchical Jew.
45
-Let me give you a few examples of what these
## p. 191 (#211) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
191
1
evangelical! lo
resintomo
vengeful
paltry people have stuffed into their heads, what
they have laid on the lips of their Master: quite
a host of confessions from “beautiful souls. ".
“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear
you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust
under your feet for a testimony against them.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judg-
ment, than for that city. ” (Mark vi. 11. )—How
92
“And whosoever shall offend one of these little
ones that believe in me, it is better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he
were cast into the sea. " (Mark ix. 42. )—How
evangelical ! . .
“And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God
with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into
hell fire : where their worm dieth not, and the fire
is not quenched. ” (Mark ix. 47, 48. )—The eye is not
precisely what is meant in this passage.
“Verily I say unto you, That there be some of
them that stand here, which shall not taste of death,
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with
power. ” (Mark ix. 1. )—Well lied, lion ! *
“Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For
(A psychologist's comment. Christian
morality is refuted by its “For's”: its reasons”
refute,—this is Christian. ) (Mark viii. 34. )
(.
* An adaptation of Shakespeare's “Well roared, lion
(Mid. N, D. , Act 5, Sc. i. ), the lion, as is well known, being
the symbol for St Mark in Christian literature and Art. --TR.
X
X
.
## p. 192 (#212) ############################################
192
THE ANTICHRIST
t
1
+
.
t
+
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. '
(Matthew vii. I, 2. )—What a strange notion of
justice on the part of a "just" judge! .
“For if ye love them which love you, what reward
have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye
more than others ? do not even the publicans so? "
(Matthew v. 46, 47. ) The principle of “Christian
love”: it insists upon being well paid.
“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ”
(Matthew vi. 15. )—Very compromising for the
“ Father” in question.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
"
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you. ” (Matthew vi. 33. )—“All these things. ”
—that is to say, food, clothing, all the necessities
of life. To use a moderate expression, this is an
error. Shortly before this God appears as a
tailor, at least in certain cases. . .
“Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for,
behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the
like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. ”
(Luke vi. 23. )—Impudent rabble! They dare to
compare themselves with the prophets. . .
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are. ” (St Paul, 1 Corinthians iii. 16, 17. )
"
-One cannot have too much contempt for this
sort of things
-
## p. 193 (#213) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
193
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the
world? and if the world shall be judged by you,
are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ?
(St Paul, 1 Corinthians vi. 2. )—Unfortunately this is
not merely the speech of a lunatic. . . . This appal-
ling impostor proceeds thus : “Know ye not that we
shall judge angels? how much more things that
pertain to this life? ”
“Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe . . . not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called: But
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty; And base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen ; yea,
and things which are not, to bring to nought things
that are: That no flesh should glory in his pre-
sence. ” (St Paul, 1 Corinthians i. 20 et seq. )-In
order to understand this passage, which is of the
highest importance as an example of the psychology
of every Chandala morality, the reader should refer
to my Genealogy of Morals : in this book, the con-
trast between a noble and a Chandala morality
born of resentment and impotent revengefulness, is
brought to light for the first time. St Paul was the
greatest of all the apostles of revenge.
X
46
What follows from this? That one does well to
13
## p. 194 (#214) ############################################
194
THE ANTICHRIST
»
put on one's gloves when reading the New Testa-
ment. The proximity of so much pitch almost
defiles one. We should feel just as little inclined to
hobnob with “the first Christians” as with Polish
Jews : not that we need explain our objections.
They 'simply smell bad. —In vain have I sought for
a single sympathetic feature in the New Testament;
there is not a trace of freedom, kindliness, open-
heartedness and honesty to be found in it. Humane-
ness has not even made a start in this book, while
cleanly instincts are entirely absent from it. . . .
Only evil instincts are to be found in the New
Testament, it shows no sign of courage, these people
lack even the courage of their evil instincts. All is
cowardice, all is a closing of one's eyes and self-
deception. Every book becomes clean, after one
has just read the New Testament: for instance, im-
mediately after laying down St Paul, I read with
particular delight that most charming and most
wanton of scoffers, Petronius, of whom someone
might say what Domenico Boccaccio wrote to the
Duke of Parma about Cæsar Borgia : “è tutto festo”
-immortally healthy, immortally cheerful and well-
constituted. . . .
These petty bigots err in their
calculations and in the most important thing of all.
They certainly attack; but everything they assail
is, by that very fact alone, distinguished. He whom
a "primitive Christian” attacks, is not thereby
sullied. . . . Conversely it is an honour to be
opposed by “primitive Christians. ” One cannot
read the New Testament without feeling a prefer-
ence for everything in it which is the subject of
abuse—not to speak of the “wisdom of this world,”
)
## p. 195 (#215) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
195
which an impudent windbag tries in vain to con-
found " by the foolishness of preaching. " Even the
Pharisees and the Scribes derive advantage from
such opposition: they must certainly have been
worth something in order to have been hated in such
a disreputable way. Hypocrisy—as if this were a
reproach which the “first Christians” were at liberty
to make ! —After all the Scribes and Pharisees were
the privileged ones: this was quite enough, the hatred
of the Chandala requires no other reasons. I very
much fear that the “first Christian”-as also the
“last Christian" whom I may yet be able to meet,-
is in his deepest instincts a rebel against everything
privileged; he lives and struggles unremittingly for
"equal rights”! . . . Regarded more closely, he
has no alternative. . . . If one's desire be person-
ally to represent “one of the chosen of God”_or
a “temple of God,” or “a judge of angels,”—then
”
every other principle of selection, for instance that
based upon a standard of honesty, intellect, manli-
ness and pride, or upon beauty and freedom of heart,
becomes the “world,”—evil in itself. Moral: every
word on the lips of a “first Christian” is a lie, every
action he does is an instinctive falsehood,-all his
values, all his aims are pernicious; but the man he
hates, the thing he hates, has value, . . . The Chris-
tian, more particularly the Christian priest, is a
criterion of values--Do I require to add that in the
whole of the New Testament only one figure appears
which we cannot help respecting? Pilate, the Roman
Governor. To take a Jewish quarrel seriously was
a thing he could not get himself to do. One Jew
more or less—what did it matter? . . . The noble
a
## p. 196 (#216) ############################################
196
THE ANTICHRIST
scorn of a Roman, in whose presence the word
"truth” had been shamelessly abused, has enriched
the New Testament with the only saying which is
of value,—and this saying is not only the criticism,
but actually the shattering of that Testament:
“What is truth! ”
.
47
-That which separates us from other people is
not the fact that we can discover no God, either in
history, or in nature, or behind nature,—but that we
regard what has been revered as “God," not as
“divine,” but as wretched, absurd, pernicious; not
as an error, but as a crime against life. . . . We
deny God as God. . . . If the existence of this
Christian God were proved to us, we should feel even
less able to believe in him. -In a formula : deus
qualem Paulus creavit, dei negatio. —A religion such
as Christianity which never once comes in touch
with reality, and which collapses the very moment
reality asserts its rights even on one single point,
must naturally be a mortal enemy of the “wisdom
of this world”-that is to say, science. It will call
all those means good with which mental discipline,
lucidity and severity in intellectual matters, nobility
and freedom of the intellect may be poisoned, calum-
niated and decried. “Faith” as an imperative is
a veto against science,-in praxi, it means lies at
any price. St Paul understood that falsehood—that
“ faith” was necessary; subsequently the Church
understood St Paul. - That “God” which St Paul
invented for himself, a God who “confounds” the
“wisdom of this world” (in a narrower sense, the
-
## p. 197 (#217) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
197
two great opponents of all superstition, philology
and medicine)
, means, in very truth, simply St Paul's
firm resolve to do so: to call his own will “God”,thora,
that is arch-Jewish. St Paul insists upon confound-
ing the “wisdom of this world”: his enemies are the
good old philologists and doctors of the Alexandrine
schools; it is on them that he wages war.
As a
matter of fact no one is either a philologist or a
doctor, who is not also an Antichrist. As a philolo-
gist, for instance, a man sees behind the “holy
books," as a doctor he sees behind the physiological
rottenness of the typical Christian. The doctor
says “incurable,” the philologist says “forgery. ”
48
-Has anybody ever really understood the cele-
brated story which stands at the beginning of the
Bible, --concerning God's deadly panic over science ?
. . Nobody has understood it. This essentially
sacerdotal book naturally begins with the great
inner difficulty of the priest: he knows only one
great danger, consequently “God” has only one
great danger. -
The old God, entirely “spirit,” a high-priest
through and through, and wholly perfect, is wander-
ing in a leisurely fashion round his garden ; but he
is bored. Against boredom even the gods them-
selves struggle in vain. * What does he do? He
invents man,-man is entertaining. . . . But, behold,
* A parody on a line in Schiller's "Jungfrau von Orleans ”
(Act 3, Sc. vi. ): “Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst
vergebens" (With stupidity even the gods themselves.
struggle in vain). -- TR.
## p. 198 (#218) ############################################
198
THE ANTICHRIST
even man begins to be bored. God's compassion for
the only form of misery which is peculiar to all
paradises, exceeds all bounds: so forthwith he
creates yet other animals. God's first mistake: man
did not think animals entertaining,—he dominated
them, he did not even wish to be an “animal. "
Consequently God created woman. And boredom
did indeed cease from that moment,—but many
other things ceased as well! Woman was God's
second mistake. —“Woman in her innermost nature
is a serpent, Heva"-every priest knows this : “all
evil came into this world through woman. ”—every
priest knows this too. Consequently science also
comes from woman. Only through woman did
man learn to taste of the tree of knowledge. —What
had happened? Panic had seized the old God.
Man himself had been his greatest mistake, he had
created a rival for himself, science makes vou equal
to God,—it is all up with priests and gods when man
becomes scientific! —Moral: science is the most pro-
hibited thing of all,—it alone, is forbidden. Science
is the first, the germ of all sins, the original sin.
This alone is morality. —“Thou shalt not know":-
the rest follows as a matter of course. God's panic
did not deprive him of his intelligence. How can
one guard against science? For ages this was his
principal problem. Reply: man must be kicked
out of paradise! Happiness, leisure leads to think-
ing,—all thoughts are bad thoughts. . . . Man must
not think. And the “priest-per-se” proceeds to
invent distress, death, the vital danger of pregnancy,
every kind of misery, decrepitude, and affliction,
and above all disease, –all these are but weapons
)
## p. 199 (#219) ############################################
A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
199
employed in the struggle with science! Trouble
prevents man from thinking. . And notwith-
standing all these precautions ! Oh, horror! the
work of science towers aloft, it storms heaven itself,
it rings the death-knell of the gods,—what's to be
done ? _The old God invents war; he separates the
nations, and contrives to make men destroy each
other mutually (—the priests have always been in
need of war . . . ). War, among other things, is a
great disturber of science ! -- Incredible! Know-
ledge, the rejection of the sacerdotal yoke, nevertheless
increases. So the old God arrives at this final
decision : "Man has become scientific,—there is no
help for it, he must be drowned ! ”. . .
49
You have understood me. The beginning of the
Bible contains the whole psychology of the priest. -
The priest knows only one great danger, and that
is science,—the healthy concept of cause and effect.
But, on the whole,science flourishes only under happy
conditions,-a man must have time, he must also
have superfluous mental energy in order to "pursue
knowledge. " 'Consequently man must be made
unhappy,"—this has been the argument of the priest
of all ages. —You have already
divined what, in ac-
cordance with such a manner of arguing, must first
have come into the world :"sin. " The notion
of guilt and punishment, the whole "moral order of
the universe," was invented against science,-against
the deliverance of man from
the priest. . . . Man
must not cast his glance upon the outer world, he
must turn it inwards into himself; he must not as
## p. 200 (#220) ############################################
200
THE ANTICHRIST
a
a learner look cleverly and cautiously into things;
he must not see at all: he must suffer. . . . And
he must suffer, so that he may be in need of the
priest-every minute. --Away with doctors! What
is needed is a Saviour ! —The notion of guilt and
punishment, including the doctrine of “grace,” of
“salvation" and of “forgiveness ”—all lies through
and through without a shred of psychological reality
-were invented in order to destroy man's sense of
causality, they are an attack on the concept of cause
and effect ! -And not an attack with the fist, with
the knife, with honesty in hate and love! But one
actuated by the most cowardly, most crafty, and
most ignoble instincts! A priests attack! A para-
site's attack! A vampyrism of pale subterranean
leeches ! -. . . When the natural consequences of an
act are no longer “natural,” but are thought to be
conjured up by phantom concepts of superstition, by
“God," by“spirits,” and by “souls,” as merely moral
consequences, in the form of rewards, punishments,
hints, and educational means,—then the whole basis
of knowledge is destroyed, then the greatest crime
against man has been perpetrated. —Sin, I repeat, this
form of self-pollution par excellence on the part of
man, was invented in order to make science, culture
and every elevation and noble trait in man quite
impossible; by means of the invention of sin the
priest is able to rule.
50
-I cannot here dispense with a psychology of
“faith” and of the “faithful,” which will naturally
be to the advantage of the "faithful. ” If to-day there
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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
201
)
are still many who do not know how very indecent. .
it is to be a “believer"-or to what extent such a
state is the sign of decadence, and of the broken will
to Life,--they will know it no later than to-morrow.
My voice can make even those hear who are hard
of hearing. If perchance my ears have not deceived
me, it seems that among Christians there is such a
thing as a kind of criterion of truth, which is called
"the proof of power. ” “Faith saveth ; therefore it is
true. ” — It might be objected here that it is precisely
salvation which is not proved but only promised :
salvation is bound up with the condition “faith,
one shall be saved, because one has faith. But
how prove that that which the priest promises
to the faithful really will take place, to wit: the
Beyond” which defies all demonstration ? - The
assumed "proof of power” is at bottom once again
only a belief in the fact that the effect which faith
promises will not fail to take place. In a formula :
"I believe that faith saveth ;---'consequently it is true.
But with this we are at the end of our tether. This
“consequently” would be the absurdum itself as a
criterion of truth. —Let us be indulgent enough to
assume, however, that salvation is proved by faith
(-not only desired, and not merely promised by the
somewhat suspicious lips of a priest): could salvation
-or, in technical terminology, happiness-ever be a
proof of truth? So little is it so that, when pleasur-
able sensations make their influence felt in replying
to the question "what is true,” they furnish almost
the contradiction of truth, or at any rate they
make it in the highest degree suspicious. The proof
.
through “happiness," is a proof of happiness—and
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202
THE ANTICHRIST
nothing else ; why in the world should we take it
for granted that true judgments cause more pleasure
than false ones, and that in accordance with a pre-
established harmony, they necessarily bring pleasant
feelings in their wake ? — The experience of all strict
and profound minds teaches the reverse. Every inch
of truth has been conquered only after a struggle,
almost everything to which our heart, our love and
our trust in life cleaves, has had to be sacrificed
for it. Greatness of soul is necessary for this : the
service of truth is the hardest of all services. What
then is meant by honesty in things intellectual ?
It means that a man is severe towards his own heart,
that he scorns “ beautiful feelings," and that he
makes a matter of conscience out of every Yea and
Nay! ---Faith saveth : consequently it lies. . . .
51
The fact that faith may in certain circumstances
save, the fact that salvation as the result of an idée
fire does not constitute a true idea, the fact that
faith moves no mountains, but may very readily
raise them where previously they did not exist-
all these things are made sufficiently clear by a
mere casual stroll through a lunatic asylum. Of
course no priest would find this sufficient : for he
instinctively denies that illness is illness or that
lunatic asylums are lunatic asylums. Christianity
is in need of illness, just as Ancient Greece was in
need of a superabundance of health. The actual
ulterior motive of the whole of the Church's system
of salvation is to make people ill. And is not the
Church itself the Catholic madhouse as an ultimate
;
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A CRITICISM OF CHRISTIANITY
203
ideal ? —The earth as a whole converted into a
madhouse? —The kind of religious man which the
Church aims at producing is a typical decadent. ,
The moment of time at which a religious crisis
attains the ascendancy over a people, is always
characterised by nerve-epidemics; the “inner
world” of the religious man is ridiculously like
the “inner world” of over-irritable and exhausted
people; the “highest” states which Christianity
holds up to mankind as the value of values, are
epileptic in character,—the Church has pronounced
only madmen or great swindlers in majorem dei
honorem holy. Once I ventured to characterise
the whole of the Christian training of penance and
salvation (which nowadays is best studied in Eng-
land) as a folie circulaire methodically generated
upon a soil which, of course, is already prepared
for it,—that is to say, which is thoroughly morbid.
Not every one who likes can be a Christian: no
man is
converted to Christianity,-he must be
sick enough for it. . We others who possess
enough courage both for health and for contempt,
how rightly we may despise a religion which taught
men to misunderstand the body! which would not
rid itself of the superstitions of the soul! which
made a virtue of taking inadequate nourishment !
which in health combats a sort of enemy, devil,
temptation! which persuaded itself that it was
possible to bear a perfect soul about in a cadaverous
body, and which, to this end, had to make up
for
itself a new concept of “perfection," a pale, sickly,
idiotically gushing ideal,-so-called “holiness,”-
holiness, which in itself is simply a symptom of
.
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THE ANTICHRIST
a
an impoverished, enervated and incurably deterio-
rated body! . . . The movement of Christianity,
as a European movement, was from first to last, a
general accumulation of the ruck and scum of all
sorts and kinds (and these, by means of Christi-
anity, aspire to power). It does not express the
downfall of a race, it is rather a conglomerate
assembly of all the decadent elements from every-
where which seek each other and crowd together.
It was not, as some believe, the corruption of
antiquity, of noble antiquity, which made Christi-
anity possible: the learned idiocy which nowadays
tries to support such a notion cannot be too severely
contradicted. At the time when the morbid and
corrupted Chandala classes became Christianised in
the whole of the imperium, the very contrary type,
nobility, was extant in its finest and maturest
forms. The greatest number became master; the
democracy of Christian instincts triumphed.
Christianity was not “national,” it was not deter-
mined by race,-it appealed to all the disinherited
forms of life, it had its allies everywhere.
