The Madman (philo).docx

“God is dead”, that’s what The Madman want’s to unveil. Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of this passage, has been trying to uncover us from this ignorance of Christian morality. He has been trying to wake us up and let us accept that humans are the murderers of Christian morality, of all the old values and truths. This parable has been exposing that we’ve lost the validity of all and we ourselves are responsible. This has been tearing our reason for continued existence. I believe Nietzsche is not saying that human literally killed God, but humans, specifically the atheists, failed to understand the meaning of the death of God. The Madman explains the significance of taking God out of society. It’s pointing out that in the last couple years we have killed God from our society with the rise of reason and science, and that God’s death is our doing. “God is dead –and we have killed him.” is not that convincing when you really believe in God and when its meaning is taken literally, but once you assume symbolism at every term, its true meaning will be grasped. “…that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours…” shows that people are looking for the light, which represents God and the truth, where it already exists. In the passage the madman was laughed at and jeered by the crowd, and this shows that the notion of God’s death is laughable insofar as they deny that He ever existed. For someone who believes that God existed and lived, this scene of ignorance is devastating. To say that God is dead to an atheist is such a manner as to imply that, though they don’t appreciate it, they should and they must, is plainly to deny the depth and conviction of their supposed atheism, because how can you say that someone is dead if He didn’t exist. With the rise of atheism, people would turn to nihilism. I believe that the madman is not blasphemous but was proposing a notion that is foreign to the crowd’s ear. The first time I’ve read this passage, I thought the Madman isn’t a believer of the existence of God, but as I went through the depths of each phrases and sentences, it’s the opposite. The Madman believes in God, he believes that God existed and lived and we killed him but the crowd doesn’t believe and so they deny that God existed by laughing at the madman. Without the sun, the earth loses its balance. Nietzsche is showing them the consequences for what they don’t understand. And it is meaningful to say, “God is dead”, it is a comment on the state of man.