In Nietzsche's “Morality as Anti-Nature” the author states that in the Christian religion morality is the antagonist to human nature in and of itself and the ways in which it functions upon people. Many authors since have agreed with him but few have given ample support as to why. Those few did it by providing support within their own arguments rather than writing upon the writings of Nietzsche himself. Those few authors include Hume, Twain, and Emma Goldman. Their arguments against Christianity in society are at the forefront of the support behind Nietzsche's idea of morality being the anti-nature. Nietzsche's belief that the Christian idea of “morality” is detrimental to human nature and survival was the match that would ignite a flame of religious challenge in literature for years to come.
In “Morality as Anti-Nature”, Nietzsche states, “But an attack on the roots of passion means an attack on the roots of life: the practice of the church is hostile to life” (718). As he wrote these very words Nietzsche himself was in an intellectual fight with the Christian church, and thus in this way we can understand the meaning of his words. I believe that he meant that an attack on the very roots of what drives human nature is an attack on human life itself and thus the practices and ideals of the church, such as their ideas of what constitutes morality, are damaging to human life. In another work by Nietzsche he writes, “…to the priestly class decadence is no more than a means to an end.
[...] 31:1. EBSCO Host. Web April 2012. Nietzsche, Friedrich. “Morality as Anti-Nature.” A World of Ideas. 8th Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's 717-26. Print. [...]
[...] Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals. Arlington: Richer Resources Publications Print. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Antichrist. 2nd ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Print. [...]
[...] Hume stated that virtue and morality had no purpose other than to benefit their own survival and bring down the greatness of human intellect. Without making specific reference to Nietzsche himself he was agreeing with the great thinker, a fact that essayist Craig Beam did not fail to miss in his writing “Hume and Nietzsche: Naturalists, Ethicists, Anti-Christians”. Even the anarchist Emma Goldman believed the “pernicious slave morality” of Christianity was degrading only to benefit its own survival rather than to be an institution for the good of human survival and nature as it claims to be, and thus the failure of Christianity. [...]
[...] Beam's writing in this essay states that Hume believed morality and virtue were wrong not because they were disagreeable but also because they went against the basics of human nature as well as its success and survival. most general formula on which every religion and morality is founded is: this and that, refrain from this and that-then you will be happy! Otherwise (722 Nietzsche “Morality”). Nietzsche's writing here reflects his work in the Antichrist as well, as the basis of much of his writing within it is based upon the idea of morality causing a kind of slavishness to itself within the human race. [...]
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