INTRODUCTION:
Throughout the history of mankind, there have always been certain things that separate men from animals. The opposable thumb, the superior intelligence, and the capacity to make tools are just a few of the things that separate man from beast. Yet one of the longest established and most controversial of these human characteristics is religion. Archaeologists have found that religious beliefs are as old as man himself. In the modern world though, it seems as if less and less people are buying into the religious doctrines and dogmas, and creating their own beliefs through a mix of science and philosophy.
Why are people turning from organized religion? Has modern society “killed” God, replacing him with a more logical, scientific explanation, or is God just as prevalent today as he was thousands of years before?
This paper is based on “The Story of The Madman by Nietzsche”, In this story, a man, The Madman, lights a lantern when the sun has already risen and runs through the town yelling “I seek God, I seek God!” The people around him, many not believing in God, were amused by him and wandered if he was lost or had gone astray from his home. The Madman continued to proclaim in the streets “Where has God gone? I mean to tell you! We have killed him, you and I! We are all murderers!”
The Madman goes on yelling trying to figure out for himself and the people around him how we had done such a thing, and what was going to happen now that “God is Dead.” He continues “God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? The holiest, and the mightiest that the world has hitherto possessed, has bled to death under our knife – who will wipe the blood from us? With what water could we cleanse ourselves? What lustrums, what sacred games shall we have to devise? Is not the magnitude of this deed too great for us? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods, merely.
