Riomar Payte
The Mad Man
What Nietzsche is concerned about in the mad man is that god is dead in the hearts and minds of his own generation of modern men. God was killed by an indifference that was itself directly related to a pronounced cultural shift away from faith and towards rationalism and science.
But even before Nietzsche came in to the picture humanity had indeed killed God or the notion of God. With the renaissance, gifted individuals recovered something of the ancient Greek way of thingking, which focuses on what the person could learn for himself. How man can use his brain and his senses to decide what is true and what is false.
So recognizing that God is dead in each individuals generation ought to come as a joyous wisdom allowing individuals to lead less guilt-ridden lives in a world that was no longer to be seen as being inherently sinful. Because the existence of God had provided the foundation of a Christian moral defining and uniting approach to life as a shared cultural set of beliefs that had defined a social and cultural outlook within which people had lived their lives. So, without God, each individual would consider earthly lives could become more joyful, meaningful and healthy when not lived within narrow limits set by faith related concerns for the state of an individual’s soul.
Faith in God had been replaced with faith in science. But Nietzsche, although an atheist, insists that a person cannot live a faith free life. God is dead, so what must we do to find meaning for our lives in his absence? Nietzsche understands that life cannot be lived apart from some sort of spiritual pursuit. If we deny the existence of a transcendent God, we are the only possible replacements.
So, Nietzsche’s spiritu