No More Learning

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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. .
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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.
of
. . .
of .
if to
it
. ;
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. .
In
? 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,
? ? of or
to
. it .
of
is
. of
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It it
? 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
? ? of
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of
. . .
a
it, of
is ill
is is
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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
at
or or
is a
of
a
its
so of in
a
a
of
? 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.
another sense, not necessary, but
extremely dangerous, though captivating and
? ? B.
In In
of of
is
as
to
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
I95
seductive, because it corresponds with the morbid character of whole classes and types of modern humanity, . . . they simply follow their inclinations when they aspire to Christianity--they are de cadents of all kinds.
A and B must be kept very sharply apart.
In the case of A, Christianity is a cure, or at least a taming process (under certain circumstances it serves the purpose of making people ill: and this is sometimes useful as a means of subduing savage and brutal natures). In the case of B, it is a symptom of illness itself, it renders the state of decadence more acute; in this case it stands opposed to a corroborating system of treatment, it
is the invalid's instinct standing against that which would be most salutary to him.
237.
On one side there are the serious, the dignified,
and reflective people: and on the other the bar barous, the unclean, and the irresponsible beasts:
it is merely a question of taming animals--and
in this case the tamer must be hard, terrible, and
awe-inspiring, at least to his beasts.
All essential requirements must be imposed upon
the unruly creatures with almost brutal distinct ness--that is to say, magnified a thousand times.
Even the fulfilment of the requirement must be presented in the coarsest way possible, so
that it may command respect, as in the case of the spiritualisation of the Brahmins.
sk
? ? ? ? 196
THE WILL TO POWER.
The struggle with the rabble and the herd. If
any degree
reached, the chasm separating these purified and
regenerated people
from the terrible remainder
of tameness and order has been
must have been bridged. . . .
This chasm is a means of increasing self-respect
in higher castes, and of confirming their belief in that which they represent--hence the Chandala. Contempt and its excess are perfectly correct psychologically -- that is to say, magnified a
hundred times, so that it may at least be felt.
238.
The struggle against brutal instincts is quite different from the struggle against morbid instincts;
it may even be a means of overcoming brutality
by making the brutes ill. The psychical treatment practised by Christianity is often nothing more
than the process of converting a brute into a sick and therefore tame animal.
The struggle against raw and savage natures must be a struggle with weapons which are able
to affect such natures: superstitions and such means are therefore indispensable and essential.
239.
Our age, in a certain sense, is mature (that is to say, decadent), just as Buddha's was. . . . That is why a sort of Christianity is possible without
all the absurd dogmas (the most repulsive offshoots of ancient hybridism).
? ? ? ? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
24O.
I97
Supposing it were impossible to disprove Chris
tianity, Pascal thinks, in view of the terrible
possibility that it may be true, that it is in the highest degree prudent to be a Christian. As a
proof of how much Christianity has lost of its terrible nature, to-day we find that other attempt to justify which consists asserting, that even
were mistake, nevertheless provides the greatest advantages and pleasures for its adherents
? throughout
their lives:--it therefore seems that
this belief should be upheld owing the peace
and quiet ensures--not owing the terror
threatening possibility, but rather out fear
life that has lost one of its charms. This hedonistic turn thought, which uses happiness proof,
symptom decline: takes the place the proof resulting from power from that which
the Christian mind most terrible--namely, fear. With this new interpretation, Christianity
matter fact, nearing its stage
exhaustion. People are satisfied with Christianity which an opiate, because they no longer have the
strength seek, struggle, dare,
stand alone, nor take up Pascal's position and
share that gloomily brooding self-contempt, that belief human unworthiness, and that anxiety
which believes that "may be damned. " But Christianity the chief object which soothe diseased nerves, does not require the terrible solution consisting "God on the cross"; that
? ? of a
to it
to
of
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or
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? 198
THE WILL TO POWER.
is why Buddhism is secretly gaining ground all over Europe.
24 I.
The humour of European culture: people
regard one thing as true, but do the other. For
instance, what is the use of the art reading and criticising, the ecclesiastical interpretation
the Bible, whether according Catholics Protestants, still upheld
242.
No one sufficiently aware the barbarity
the notions among which we Europeans still live. To think that men have been able to believe that
? depended upon book And am told that this still
the "Salvation the soul"
believed.
What the good all scientific education, all
criticism and all hermeneutics, such nonsense as
the Church's interpretation the Bible has not
yet turned the colours our bodies permanently into the red of shame?
243.
Subject for reflection: To what extent does the fatal belief "Divine Providence"--the most
paralysing
standing that has ever existed--continue pre vail; what extent have the Christian hypothesis and interpretation Life continued their lives
belief for both the hand and the under
? ? of
to
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? CRITICISM OF RELIGION.
under the cover of terms like "Nature," "Progress,"
"perfectionment," "Darwinism,"
or beneath the superstition that there is a certain relation between happiness and virtue, unhappiness and sin? That
absurd belief in the course of things, in "Life"
and in the "instinct of Life"; that foolish resig
nation which arises from the notion that if only
every one did his duty all would go well--all this
sort of thing can only have a meaning if one
assumes that there is a direction of things sub
specie boni. Even fatalism, our present form of
philosophical sensibility, is the result of a long
belief in Divine Providence, an unconscious result:
as though it were nothing to do with us how everything goes! (As though we might let things
take their own course; the individual being only a modus of the absolute reality. )
I99
? It is the
height psychological falsity
of (** on the
part of man to imagine a being according to his
own petty standard, who is a beginning, a "thing
in-itself," and who appears to him good, wise,
mighty, and precious; for thus he suppresses in
thought all the causality by means of which every
kind of goodness, wisdom, and power comes into
existence and has value. In short, elements of
the most recent and most conditional origin were regarded not as evolved, but as spontaneously
generated and "things-in-themselves," and perhaps
as the cause of all things. . . . Experience teaches us that, in every case in which a man has
?