ABSTRACT
The names of Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche, despite all that separates them in other respects, are often mentioned together in relation to a joint atheism, antimetaphysical materialism, and caustic denunciation of religion. This chapter shows how the religious "shadow" that Nietzsche sought to chase away was, at bottom, the Marxist variant of atheism; conversely, the Nietzschean brand of atheism should be seen as just one of many odors associated with that religious "aroma" that Marx and Engels found offensive. It contains material that is highly valuable for the purposes, as it can help substantiate the understanding of the similarities as well as the crucial discrepancies between the Marxist and the Nietzschean critiques of religion. To move in a Marxist way beyond good and evil is to access the human, all too human. Superseding dehumanizing Christian morality equals quitting the realm of metaphysical and supernatural injunctions, and asserting the natural and the human.
