ABSTRACT
Life, nature and history The case for the prosecution against religion, morality and reason in the European tradition has been made pre-eminently by Nietzsche. His decision already taken, Nietzsche paid little attention to arguments against the existence of God. As is often remarked, the concern of Nietzsche’s madman, who, like Diogenes the Cynic in search of man, runs into the market-place with a lit lantern in the bright morning hours crying, ‘I seek God! I seek God!’ is not to announce the death of God, for this has already been accepted. It is to announce the murder of God, and the very magnitude of this deed:
God is dead. And we have killed him-you and I. How did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?1
