No More Learning

Christianity is still possible at any moment. It is not bound to any one of the impudent
whatever of metaphysics, and it needs asceticism and Christian "natural science" still less. Christi
anity is a method of life, not a system of belief. It tells us how we should behave, not what we should believe.
He who says to-day: "I refuse to be a soldier," "I care not for tribunals," "I lay no
claim to the services of the police," "I will not do anything that disturbs the peace within me:
? that have adorned themselves with its name: it needs neither the teaching of the personal God, nor of sin, nor of immortality, nor of redemption, nor of faith; it has absolutely no need
? ? ? 176
THE WILL TO POWER.
and if I must suffer on that account, nothing can
so well maintain my inward peace as suffering"-- such a man would be a Christian.
2 I 3.
Concerning the history of Christianity. --Con
tinual change of environment: Christian teaching is thus continually changing centre gravity. The favouring low and paltry people. The
development caritas. The type "Chris tian" gradually adopts everything that originally
rejected (and the rejection which asserted
? right citizen,
exist). The Christian becomes soldier, judge, workman, merchant,
theologian, priest, philosopher,
he re-enters all those departments of active
scholar,
farmer, artist, patriot, politician, prince
life which had forsworn (he defends
himself, he establishes tribunals, he punishes, he swears,
he differentiates between people and people, he contemns, and he shows anger). The whole life the Christian ultimately exactly that life from which Christ preached deliverance.
The Church just much factor the
triumph the Antichrist, and modern Nationalism.
the modern State The Church the
barbarisation
Christianity.
2I4.
Among the powers that have mastered Chris tianity are: Judaism (Paul); Platonism (Augustine);
The cult mystery (the teaching salvation,
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
177
the emblem of the "cross"); Asceticism (hostility towards "Nature," "Reason," the "senses,"--the
Orient . .
Christianity denaturalisation gregarious morality: under the power the most complete misapprehensions and self-deceptions. Demo cracy
more natural form and less sown with falsehood. fact that the oppressed, the low, and whole mob slaves and half-castes,
will prevail.
First step: they make themselves free--they detach themselves, first fancy only; they recognise each other; they make themselves paramount.
Second step: they enter the lists, they demand acknowledgment, equal rights, "Justice. "
Third step: they demand privileges (they draw the representatives power over their
side).
Fourth step: they alone want power, and
they have
There are three elements Christianity which
must distinguished: (a) the oppressed all
kinds, (b) the mediocre all kinds, (c) the dis satisfied and diseased all kinds. The first struggle against the politically noble and their
ideal; the second contend with the exceptions
? any way privileged (mentally
and those who are
physically); the third oppose the natural
instinct the happy and the sound.
Whenever triumph achieved, the second VOL. M
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? 178
THE WILL TO POWER.
element steps to the fore; for then Christianity
has won over the sound and happy to side (as warriors cause), likewise the powerful (inter
ested this extent the conquest the crowd) --and now the gregarious instinct, that
conscious itself (gains such courage regard own opinions), that arrogates
itself even political power.
Democracy
sort "return
owing extreme
been overcome by the opposite valuation. Result: the aristocratic ideal begins lose natural
mediocre nature which valuable
that now gets its highest sanction through Chris tianity. This mediocre nature ultimately becomes
Christianity
Nature," once Christianity,
every respect,
made natural
? anti-naturalness, might have
higher man," "noble," "artist," "passion," "knowledge"; Romanticism the cult
character ("the
the exceptional, genius, etc. etc. ).
2I
When the "masters" may also become Christians.
--It the nature
community (race, family,
herd, tribe) regard all those conditions and aspirations which favour its survival, them
selves valuable; for instance: obedience, mutual assistance, respect, moderation, pity--as also, suppress everything that happens stand the way
the above.
likewise of the nature of the rulers
(whether they are individuals classes) patronise and applaud those virtues which make
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I79
their subjects amenable and submissive--(condi tions and passions which may be utterly different from their own).
The gregarious instinct and the inst-inct of the rulers sometimes agree in approving of a certain
number of qualities and conditions,
different reasons: the first do so out of direct
egoism, the second out of indirect egoism.
The submission to Christianity on the part of
master races is essentially the result of the con viction that Christianity is a religion for the herd,
that it teaches obedience: in short, that Christians
are more easily ruled than non-Christians. With a hint of this nature, the Pope, even nowadays,
recommends Christian propaganda to the ruling
Sovereign
It should also be added that the seductive
power of the Christian ideal works most strongly upon natures that love danger, adventure, and contrasts; that love everything that entails a risk,
and wherewith a non plus ultra of powerful feeling may be attained. In this respect, one has only to think of Saint Theresa, surrounded by the
the will, as strength of will, as a sort of Quixotic heroism.
3. CHRISTIAN IDEALS.
217.
War against the Christian deal, against the doctrine of "blessedness" and "salvation" as the
of China.
heroic instincts of her
appears in those circumstances as a dissipation of
brothers:--Christianity
but for
? ? ? ? *
18O THE WILL TO POWER.
aims of life, against the supremacy of the fools, of the pure in heart, of the suffering and of the botched !
When and where has any man, of any note at all,
resembled the Christian ideal P--at least in the eyes
of those who are psychologists and triers of the heart and reins. Look at all Plutarch's heroes !
2 I 8.
Our claim to superiority: we live in an age of
Comparisons;
have never yet calculated; in every way we are
we are able to calculate as men
? history become self-conscious. We enjoy things in a different way; we suffer in a different way: our instinctive activity is the comparison of an enormous variety of things. We understand everything; we experience everything, we no
longer have a hostile feeling left within us. How
ever disastrous the results may be to ourselves, our plunging and almost lustful inquisitiveness, attacks,
unabashed, the most dangerous of subjects. . . .
"Everything is good"--it gives us pain to say
"nay" to anything. We suffer when we feel that
we are sufficiently foolish to make a definite stand against anything. . . . At bottom, it is we
scholars who to-day are fulfilling Christ's teaching most thoroughly.
2 I9.
We cannot suppress a certain irony when we contemplate those who think they have overcome Christianity by means of modern natural science. Christian values are by* no means overcome by
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION. I81
such people. "Christ on the cross" is still the most sublime symbol--even now
22O.
The two great Nihilistic movements are: (a) Buddhism, (b) Christianity. The latter has only
just about reached a state of culture in which it can fulfil its original object,--it has found its
level,--and disguise. . . .
now it can manifest itself without
22 I.
? We have re-established the Christian ideal, it now only remains to determine its value.
(1) Which values does it deny? What does the ideal that opposes it stand for? --Pride, pathos of distance, great responsibility, exuberant spirits, splendid animalism,
conquest, the deification of passion, revenge, cunning, anger, voluptuousness, adventure, know
ledge;--the noble ideal is denied: the beauty, wisdom, power, pomp, and awfulness of the type
man: the man who postulates aims, the "future" man (here Christianity presents itself as the
climatic conditions are favourable--as in the case of the Indian ideal. Both neglect the factor work. --It separates a creature from a people, a state, a civilised community, and jurisdiction; it rejects
education, wisdom, the cultivation of good man ners, acquisition and commerce; it cuts adrift
logical
the instincts of war and of
result of Judaism).
(2) Can it be realised ? -Yes, of course, when the
? ? ? I82 THE WILL TO POWER.
everything which is of use and value to men--by means of an idiosyncrasy of sentiment it isolates a man. It is non-political, anti-national, neither
aggressive nor defensive, -- and only possible within a strictly-ordered State or state of society,
which allows these holy parasites to flourish at the cost of their neighbours. . . .
(3) It has now become the will to be happy --and nothing else! "Blessedness" stands for something self-evident, that no longer requires any justification--everything else (the way to
liveandletlive)isonlyameanstoanend. . . .
But what follows is the result of a low order of thought: the fear of pain, of defilement, of cor
ruption, is great enough to provide ample grounds for allowing everything to go to the dogs. . . . This is a poor way of thinking, and is the sign of an exhausted race; we must not allow ourselves to be deceived. ("Become as little children. "
? Assisi, neurotic, epileptic, visionary, like Jesus. )
Natures of the same order: Francis of
222.
The higher man distinguishes himself from the lower by his fearlessness and his readiness to challenge misfortune: it is a sign of degeneration
when eudemonistic values begin to prevail (physio logical fatigue and enfeeblement of will-power).
Christianity, with its prospect of "blessedness," is
the typical attitude of mind of a suffering and impoverished species of man. Abundant strength
will be active, will suffer, and will go under: to it
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
183
the bigotry of Christian salvation is bad music and hieratic posing and vexation.
223.
Poverty, humility, and chastity are dangerous and slanderous ideals; but like poisons, which are
useful cures in the case of certain
diseases, they
were also necessary in the time of the Roman Empire.
All ideals are dangerous: because they lower and brand realities; they are all poisons, but
occasionally indispensable
224.
God created man, happy, idle, innocent, and
immortal: our actual life is a false, decadent, and sinful existence, a punishment. . . . Suffering, struggle, work, and death are raised as objections against life, they make life questionable, unnatural --something that must cease, and for which one not only requires but also has--remedies !
Since the time of Adam, man has been in an abnormal state: God Himself delivered up His Son for Adam's sin, in order to put an end to the abnormal condition of things: the natural character of life is a curse; to those who believe in Him, Christ restores normal life: He makes them happy, idle, and innocent. But the world did not become fruitful without labour; women do not bear children without pain; illness has not ceased: believers are served just as badly as un believers in this respect. All that has happened
as cures.
? ? ? ? 184
THE WILL TO POWER.
that man delivered from death and sin-
two assertions which allow no verification, and
which are therefore emphasised by the Church with more than usual heartiness. "He free
from sin,"--not owing his own efforts, not
owing vigorous struggle on his part, but
redeemed the death of the Saviour, -conse quently, perfectly innocent and paradisaical.
Actual life nothing more than illusion
say, deception, insanity) The struggling, fighting, and real existence--
light and shade, only bad and false:
everybody's duty
"Man, innocent, idle, immortal, and happy"--
(that whole full
this concept, which the object the "most
supreme desires," must criticised before any thing else. Why should guilt, work, death, and
pain (and, from the Christian point view, also knowledge contrary all supreme desires?
--The lazy Christian notions: "blessedness," "innocence," "immortality. "
225.
The eccentric concept "holiness" does not exist--"God" and "man" have not been divorced
from each other. "Miracles" do not exist--such
spheres do not exist: the only one be con sidered the "intellectual" (that say, the
symbolically-psychological).
counterpart "Epicureanism. "
according Greek notions was only "Epicurus' Garden. "
delivered from
? As decadence: Paradise
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
185
A life of this sort lacks a purpose: it strives after nothing;--a form of the "Epicurean gods"--
there is no longer any reason to aim at anything, --not even at having children:--everything has
been done.
226.
They despised the body: they did not reckon
with it: nay, more--they treated it as an enemy.
It was their delirium to think that a man could
carry a "beautiful soul" about in a body that was a cadaverous abortion. . . . In order to inoculate
others with this insanity they had to present the concept "beautiful soul" in a different way, and
to transvalue the natural value, until, at last, a pale, sickly, idiotically exalted creature, some thing angelic, some extreme perfection and trans
figuration was declared to be the higher man.
227.
Ignorance in matters psychological. --The
Christian has no nervous system;--contempt for,
and deliberate and wilful turning away from, the
demands of the body, from discoveries about the
body; it is assumed that all this is in keeping
with man's nature, and must perforce work the
ultimate good of the soul;--all functions of the body are systematically reduced to moral values;
illness itself is regarded as determined by morality, it is held to be the result of sin, or it is a trial or a state of salvation, through which man becomes more perfect than he could become in a state
? ? ? ? 186 THE WILL TO POWER.
of health (Pascal's idea); under certain circum stances, there are wilful attempts at inducing illness.
228.
What in sooth is this struggle " against Nature"
on the part of the Christian? We shall not, of
course, let ourselves be deceived by his words and
explanations. It is Nature against something
which is also Nature. With many, it is fear; with others, it is loathing; with yet others, it is
the sign of a certain intellectuality, the love of a bloodless and passionless ideal; and in the case
of the most superior men, it is love of an abstract
Nature--these try to live up to their ideal. It is
easily understood that humiliation in the place of
? self-esteem,
passions, emancipation
(whereby a higher notion of rank is created), the incitement to constant war on behalf of enormous
anxious cautiousness towards the from the usual duties
issues, habituation to effusiveness of feelings--all
this goes to constitute a type: in such a type the hypersensitiveness of a perishing body pre
ponderates;
but the nervousness and the in
spirations it engenders are interpreted differently.
The taste of this kind of creature tends either (1)
to subtilise, (2) to indulge in bombastic eloquence,
or (3) to go in for extreme feelings. The natural inclinations do get satisfied, but they are interpreted
in a new way; for instance, as "justification before God," "the feeling of redemption through grace," (every undeniable feeling of pleasure becomes interpreted in this way! ) pride, voluptuousness,
? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
187
etc. General problem: what will become of the man who slanders and practically denies and belittles what is natural? As a matter of fact, the Christian is an example of exaggerated self control: in order to tame his passions, he seems to find it necessary to extirpate or crucify them.
229.
physiologically throughout the ages his history covers; he does not even know himself now. The knowledge, for instance, that man has a nervous system (but no
"soul") is still the privilege of the most educated people. But man is not satisfied, in this respect,
Man did not know himself
? to say he does not know. A man must be very
human to be able to say: "I do not know this,"
--that is to say, to be able to admit his ignorance. Suppose he is in pain or in a good mood, he
never questions that he can find the reason of either condition if only he seeks. . . . And so he seeks for truth he cannot find the reason; for he does not even suspect where lies. What happens? He takes result his condition for its cause for instance, he should undertake some work (really undertaken because his good mood gave him the courage do so)
and carry work itself
through successfully: behold, the the reason his good mood.
fact, his success was determined by
As matter
the same cause that which brought about his
good mood--that say, the happy co-ordina tion physiological powers and functions.
? ? a of
is as to
.
ofis it
it.
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? I88 THE WILL TO POWER.
He feels bad: consequently he cannot overcome
a care, a scruple, or an attitude of self-criticism.
. . . He really fancies that his disagreeable con
dition is the result of his scruple, of his "sin," or of his "self-criticism. "
But after profound exhaustion and prostration, a state of recovery sets "How possible
that can feel miracle; only
free, happy?
God could have effected this change. "--Conclusion: "He has forgiven my
sin. "
From this follow certain practices: order provoke feelings sinfulness and prepare the way for crushed spirits necessary induce
condition morbidity and nervousness
the body. The methods doing this are well known. Of course, nobody suspects the causal
? logic
interpreted religiously,
itself, whereas no more than means of bringing about that morbid state indigestion which known repentance (the "fixed idea
the fact: the maceration the flesh seems like an end
sin, the hypnotising the hen by means the chalk-line "sin").
The mishandling the body prepares the ground for the required range "guilty feelings" --that say, for that general state pain which demands an explanation.
On the other hand, the method "salvation
may also develop from the above: every dis sipation the feelings, whether prayers, move
ments, attitudes, oaths, has been provoked, and exhaustion follows; very often acute,
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
189
appears in the form of epilepsy. And behind this condition of deep somnolence there come signs of recovery--or, in religious parlance, "Salvation. "
23O.
Formerly, the conditions and results of physio
logical exhaustion were considered more important
than healthy conditions and their results, and this was owing to the suddenness, fearfulness, and
mysteriousness of the former. Men were terrified by themselves, and postulated the existence of a
higher world. People have ascribed the origin of the idea of two worlds--one this side of the
grave and the other beyond it--to sleep and dreams, to shadows, to night, and to the fear of
Nature: but the symptoms of physiological ex
haustion should, above all, have been considered. Ancient religions have quite special methods of disciplining the pious into states of exhaustion,
in which they must experience such things. . . . The idea was, that one entered into a new order of things, where everything ceases to be known. -- The semblance of a higher power. . . .
23 I.
Sleep is the result of every kind of exhaus
tion; exhaustion follows upon all excessive excitement. . . .
In all pessimistic religions and philosophies
there is a yearning for sleep; the very notion "sleep" is deified and worshipped.
? In this case the exhaustion is
racial; sleep
? ? ? I90
THE WILL TO POWER.
regarded psychologically is only a symbol of a much deeper and longer compulsion to rest. . . . In praxi it is death which rules here in the seductive image of its brother sleep. . . .
232.
The whole of the Christian training in repent ance and redemption may be regarded as a folie
circulaire arbitrarily produced; though, of course,
it can be produced only in people who are pre
disposed to it--that is to say, who have morbid tendencies in their constitutions.
233.
Against remorse and purely psychical treat ment. --To be unable to have done with an ex
? perience already sign
reopening old wounds, this wallowing self
contempt and depression,
additional form the soul" ever results
spiritual illness. These "conditions of salvation" of which the
Christian conscious are merely variations the same diseased state--the interpretation an attack epilepsy by means particular formula which provided, not by science, but by religious mania.
When man his very goodness sickly. By far the greatest portion the psychical
apparatus which Christianity has used, now
classed among the various forms hysteria and epilepsy.
disease;
no "salvation
from but only new kind
decadence. This
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION,
I9I
The whole process of spiritual healing must be remodelled on a physiological basis: the "sting of conscience" as such is an obstacle in the way of recovery--as soon as possible the attempt
from the morbidness of self-torture. . . .
The purely psychical practices of the Church and
of the various sects should be decried as dangerous
to the health. No invalid is ever cured by prayers
or by the exorcising of evil spirits: the states
of "repose" which follow upon such methods of
treatment, by no means inspire confidence, in the psychological sense. . .
A man is healthy when he can laugh at the seriousness and ardour with which he has allowed
himself to be hypnotised to any extent by
detail in his life -- when his remorse seems to him like the action of a dog biting a stone--when he is ashamed of his repentance.
The purely psychological and religious practices,
which have existed hitherto, only led to an altera
tion in the symptoms: according to them a man
had recovered when he bowed before the cross,
and swore that in future he would be a good
man. . . . But a criminal, who, with a certain
gloomy seriousness cleaves to his fate and refuses
to malign his deed once it is done, has more
must be made to counterbalance
means of new actions, so that there may be an
escape
everything by
? any
spiritual
Dostoiewsky associated in prison, were all, without exception, unbroken natures,--are they not a hundred times more valuable than a "broken-spirited "Christian P
health. . . . The criminals with whom
? ? ? I92
THE WILL TO POWER.
(For the treatment of pangs of conscience recommend Mitchell's Treatment. *)
234.
A pang of conscience in a man is a sign tha his character is not yet equal to his deed. Ther is such a thing as a pang of conscience after goo
deeds: in this case it is their unfamiliarity, thei incompatibility with an old environment.
235.
Against remorse. --I do not like this form c
cowardice in regard to one's own actions, on must not leave one's self in the lurch under th
pressure of sudden shame or distress, Extrem
pride is much more fitting here. What is th
good of it all in the end| No deed get
undone because it is regretted, no more thal because it is "forgiven" or "expiated. " A man mus
be a theologian in order to believe in a power tha erases faults: we immoralists prefer to disbeliev in "faults. " We believe that all deeds, of wha kind soever, are identically of the same value a root; just as deeds which turn against us ma
*TRANSLATOR's NoTE. --In The New Sydenham Society Lexicon of Medicine and the Allied Sciences, the followin; description of Mitchell's treatment is to be found: "A method of treating cases of neurasthenia and hysteria . . by removal from home, rest in bed, massage twice a day
electrical excitation of the muscles, and excessive feeding at first with milk. "
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I93
be useful from an economical point of view, and
even generally desirable. In certain individual
cases, we admit that we might well have been
spared a given action; the circumstances alone
predisposed us in its favour. Which of us, if
favoured by circumstances, would not already
have committed every possible crime? . . . That
is why one should never say: "Thou shouldst
never have done such and such a thing," but only:
"How strange it is that I have not done such and
such a thing hundreds of times already l"--As a
matter of fact, only a very small number of acts are typical acts and real epitomes of a personality,
and seeing what a small number of people really are personalities, a single act very rarely character
ises a man. Acts are mostly dictated by circum stances; they are superficial or merely reflex
movements performed in response to a stimulus, long before the depths of our beings are affected
? or consulted in the matter. A
temper,
gesture,
knife: how little the
these acts l--A deed very stupor feeling con
that the agent feels almost
recollection, though
blow with individual resides
often brings sort
straint its wake: spellbound
belonged
creature.
he and were not an independent
This mental disorder, which form
of hypnotism, must be resisted all costs: surely
single deed, whatever be, when compared with all one has done, nothing, and may be deducted from the sum without making the account wrong. The unfair interest which society
manifests controlling the whole our lives VOL.
? ? I.
in
a
N
is it
in
to
it, at
of
it is
as
fit of
a
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? I94
THE WILL TO POWER.
in one direction, as though the very purpose of its existence were to cultivate a certain individual
act,
unfortunately this happens almost continually.
The reason of this that every deed, followed
by unexpected consequences, leads certain mental disturbance, no matter whether the con
should not infect the man of action: but
sequences be good
bad. Behold lover who promise, poet while he
from an audience: far concerned, these men are no way different from the anarchist who
suddenly confronted by detective bearing search warrant.
There are some acts which are unworthy us: acts which, they were regarded typical, would
set down belonging lower class man.
here,
regard them typical. There another kind act which we are unworthy: exceptional acts,
born particular abundance happiness and health; they are the highest waves our spring
tides, driven an unusual height by storm --an accident: such acts and "deeds" are also
not typical. An artist should never be judged
has been given receiving applause
intellectual torpor
? The one fault that has be avoided
according
the measure his works.
236.
A. proportion Christianity seems necessary
to-day, man still wild and fatal.