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"God", "immortality of the soul", "redemption", "beyond" --
Without exception, concepts to which I have never devoted
any attention, or time; not even as a child. Perhaps I have
never been childlike enough for them?
I do not by any means know atheism as a result; even less as
an event: It is a matter of course with me, from instinct. I am
too inquisitive, too questionable, too exuberant to stand for
any gross answer. God is a gross answer, an indelicacy
against us thinkers - at bottom merely a gross prohibition for
us: you shall not think!
from Nietzsche's Ecce Homo,
Walter Kaufmann transl.
What distinguishes us [scientists] from the pious and the
believers is not the quality but the quantity of belief and
piety; we are contented with less. But if the former should
challenge us: then be contented and appear to be contented! -
then we might easily reply: 'We are, indeed, not among the
least contented. You, however, if your belief makes you
blessed then appear to be blessed! Your faces have always
been more injurious to your belief than our objections have!
If these glad tidings of your Bible were written on your faces,
you would not need to insist so obstinately on the authority
of that book... As things are, however, all your apologies for
Christianity have their roots in your lack of Christianity; with
your defence plea you inscribe your own bill of indictment.
from Nietzsche's Assorted Opinions and Maxims,s.
98, R.J.
Hollingdale transl.
Historical refutation as the definitive refutation.-- In former
times, one sought to prove that there is no God - today one
indicates how the belief that there is a God arose and how
this belief acquired its weight and importance: a
counter-proof that there is no God thereby becomes
superfluous.- When in former times one had refuted the
'proofs of the existence of God' put forward, there always
remained the doubt whether better proofs might not be
adduced than those just refuted: in those days atheists did not
know how to make a clean sweep.
from Nietzsche's Daybreak,s. 95, R.J. Hollingdale transl.