Nietzsche’s quote “God is dead” is often misinterpreted to mean the literal death of God, but it actually means that the idea of God no longer guides the human behavior at large. The death of God is not a murder, but a shift from belief to logic. This post won’t go into the ramifications of Nietzsche’s thoughts, since everyone can read all about Nietzsche’s thoughts at Wikipedia. Rather, I’m going to retrace the logical steps that bring you to his conclusion.

The logic behind God’s death boils down to one key point: it is impossible for something to induce causality. Either cause and effect have always been in motion, or they never have and never will. If there is no causality, how could there be a cause for its beginning? This logical argument can be found from many sources, but the most solid presentation I’ve come across is the one in Bodhicharyavatara, Chapter 9 (On Wisdom) paragraphs 118 - 125. The text is available online.

If God is eternal, how can it be that there is a first moment for his creation? If He has created everything, what is there left for him to depend on? If God doesn’t rely on anything but himself, why are creatures and objects not being created constantly? The most common answer is the quote “God looked at his creation, and it was good”, but if creation can affect Him, He’s no longer independent from everything.

If God depends, the cause for everything is actually the conditions that made him create the world, and not God himself. When these conditions are met, he cannot but create; and when these conditions are absent, he is powerless to make. If God doesn’t intend to create, all this has happened against his will. If God wishes to create, he’s controlled by his desire. In this case desire would be the required condition for creation, and it’s ultimate cause. Where then is the omnipotent Creator?

The answers are hard to come by.

This prodigious event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 10:23 and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.