God isn’t dead, we just replaced him

Isn’t that a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche?

Not quite, Friedrich Nietzsche, or Fred as I like to call him, concluded that the christian God is dead and that we, humans, have killed him.

My humble interpretation of Fred’s statement is that through the enlightenment and the renaissance, the belief in Christianity became untenable. Fred believed that in our enlightenment, we killed God, his church, his morality, social codes, standards, way of life, etc.

As much I love Fred and all of his insights. I don’t agree with him, a simple look at these numbers show that the Seculars/Nonreligious/Agnostics/Atheists don’t even represent the top religion in the world. I do realize that I have the benefit of hindsight that he didn’t have.

Still, God(s) aren’t dead, they are alive and well with 84% of the population.

Perfect, thank you for the short article. Brevity is the mark of-

Nice try, I’d still like to explore what is happening with those 16%.

God(s) have another key role, giving meaning to life. They give an answer to the key questions of life, like Why:

Why should I wake up everyday? Why should I get out of bed? Why should I keep going on? Why do I do the things I do? Why does evil exist?

They also answer the key questions of the how:

How should I live my life? How should interact with the world around me? How should I make the difficult choices in my life?

They also give answers about what is good or bad and how we can increase the good in the world and at the same time reducing the bad.

God(s) give a us simple answers to those hard and difficult questions.

So what are your answers?

Thank you for the question. My answers to those questions are at the end of this article somewhere.

What is interesting to me about today is the simple fact that you can ask this question. It shows a big difference in our world today. There used to be a time where the answers to those key questions were fixed and absolute for everyone. Questioning those answers or having a different answer, was called heresy.

The key answers from God(s) were the absolute and only truth. It was inconceivable for an individual to have their own answers. But in our world today, a subtle change happened. Most believers can conceive that other answers can exist to the key questions, that other key answers can coexist with their God(s)’ key answers.

Most people are okay with the existence of other answers.

It must be acknowledged that as time goes by, a smaller and smaller percentage of big fans of their God(s), still refuse the coexistence with other key answers.

Side note: did you know that the word fan is a reduction the word fanatic?

Like those crazies who hate pineapple on pizza…

Thank you for the remark, it’s a great Segway to-

Jesus, if you don’t like pineapples it’s your problem, don’t make a holy war out of it.

Great point, as you noticed, it’s-

I like pineapples, that doesn’t make me evil, but when you attack me for my tastes, that makes-

SHUT UP ! STOP !

Those assholes can’t accept that-

ZIP IT ! THIS IS NOT THE TIME OR THE PLACE FOR THIS !

I’m sorry. Please continue.

Thank you, but in a way you bring up a good point.

Did I?

Yes, our society might have evolved, but our deep human need for meaning, morality, ethics or rules hasn’t changed.

We might not need God(s), but we still need answers to the hard and difficult questions to make sense of this crazy and chaotic world.

For some it might mean pineapples on pizza, for others it might mean that pineapples should never be in the same room as a pizza.

Yes, but one of them must be right? Or else, are we doomed to be at war forever?

I’m sorry to say that I won’t cover “right” or “wrong” answers in this article. My goal in this article is to explore the concept of the replacement of the old God(s) by the new God(s).

Each God, new or old, with or without pineapples, has his/her/its own commandments, tenets, holy texts, rituals, prophets, parables, etc.

The 16% who follow the news God(s), don’t feel like they’re in a religion, they feel that their beliefs are inevitable realities. From my experience, it makes them act even more aggressive in regards to their beliefs than actual religious people who believe in traditional God(s).

Weirdly enough, the people who criticize religions usually show the same type of behavior that they hate about religion.

It seems like you’re trying to defend religion.

Not really, let me give you some recent examples I’ve had the privilege of experiencing. Here are some modern churches and how I became their heretic:

• Ecology: You drove there? Don’t come complaining when your children die of a lack of drinkable water from global warming.
• Gender: They want to be referred as they, YOU ROTTEN PATRIARCAL ASSHOLE!
• Vegan/Socialist: Stop eating honey! You’re exploiting the hard work of bees!
• New Age: Stop playing those video games at once. Your soul won’t survive it!
• Career: Don’t listen to this lazy slacker bum, work hard, you’ll get that promotion!
• Business: You pussy, You haven’t launched even one successful business, you can’t know what you’re talking about.
• Self-help: Fuck you, If I can imagine it, anything is possible.

Be honest, did you deserve those attacks?

Do you deserve the hate for liking pineapples? Do people who dislike pineapples deserve your hate?

I don’t know what if I deserved them. All I can say is that they surprised and hurt me.

What I can say for sure is that the question of merit or deserving will depend on beliefs about right and wrong. Some pêople might say that I deserved and others wouldn’t. For the sake of self reflection, I’ll give the context and let you, the readers, decide for yourselves if I was wrong:

• I drove my daughter to the daycare instead of walking in a stroller because it was raining.
• I referred to someone who identified as they as “she”.
• I declared my love for honey.
• I said that video games relax me.
• I said that a person in a group shouldn’t kill themselves for a job.
• I said that becoming a freelancer was hard because you have two jobs 1) the job you do 2) selling to find paying clients for your job.
• I didn’t believe the power of positive affirmation was as strong as the person asserted.

When you have the context, were they right in attacking me? I don’t know you, but I’m confident that your answers to this question will depend on your God(s) and beliefs.

My usual defense in those situations is to ask for clarifications to try to understand why person would act in this way. Which I did.

I can say that those people really believed and felt righteous in  what they said about me. Their God(s) gave them the right to treat me as a heretic.

I don’t follow the rules of these modern churches, I don’t adhere to the their ultimate answers, I guess I must be their heretic.

Fred had an interesting concept related to this: the Ubermensch.

Isn’t that some Nazi shit?

Yes and no, they used his concept in their ideology. Fred was already dead when the Nazi party started. I’m pretty sure that Fred had something else in mind when he spoke of the Ubermensch.

Here’s how I understand Fred’s concept of the Ubermensch: In life, It’s easier to accept the religions that people impose on you. You’ll be accepted in that religion and you’ll have easy answers to the key questions.

Fred believed that in a future with a dead God, people will lose all meaning. People will become nihilists. Great prediction, most of Gen Z feel a lack of meaning in their lives.

Fred had another prediction, he believed that some people will dare to cross the great bridge that starts at the reassuring acceptance of any religion, goes through the God of nihilism.

When reaching the other side of that bridge, those people will reject the established God(s) and will follow their own path to create their own personal religion instead of accepting the religions imposed on them.

Such a person is according to Fred, an Ubermensch. A superior being.

How’s the state of the Ubermensch movement?

Fred’s task wasn’t easy. He tried to make prediction of the future based on what he observed in his times. Today, we have the luxury of having seen Fred’s future as it is our past. We have good data of what has actually happened and can compare it to his prediction.

We know that the official God(s) are still present in 84% of the population. The 16% choose their own God(s) according to who they are. So yes, in a way, we could say he was right. 16% of the population are Ubermensch.

It goes further, the 84% can believe in the new God(s). A Christian can propagate the tenets of the God of human rights. A Muslim can believe in the God of Business and Capitalism. A Hindu can believe that pineapples and pizza are a match made in Nirvana.

What obsesses me is this: I wonder if we’ll ever get out of pineapple wars.

Let’s finish this, what are your answers then?

Me? I worship a Goddess. I give my body, heart and soul to the Goddess of pleasure and experience. Here is my pledge to her:

I will see every country, taste every food, drink every juice, sing every song, hear every bird, swim every river, smell every flower, ride every train, trek every mountain, write blog articles about every subject, play every video game, read every book, cook every dish, master every skill, dance on all songs, perform every job, study every master’s biography, follow my own path, walk the path of masters, speak lies, speak the truth, lose myself in every painting, reflect on every quote, be the best parent I can, feel every emotion, play every game, hear every song, meet every-

STOP ! We get it. Seems difficult no? It doesn’t seem rational.

This is obviously impossible, I know. I never said that my beliefs were rational. I’m just saying what my religion is and I’ll stand by my Goddess till the day I die.

If I’m honest, I don’t think my religion is so special. I don’t even think that I came up with it myself. It’s is a weird variation of the consumer society we’re living in right now. I’m just a product of it. I want to consume everything.

I kind of know all of this, but it still remains the code I live by. Nope, I’m definitely not rational about this.

I sometimes imagine Fred here next to me, I explain to him my personal religion at length. But I never seem to receive an answer from him.

I wonder, would he call me an Ubermensch? Probably not…

No, probably not, Call to actions?

• What are your God(s)?
  • Who are its prophets?
  • What do they preach?
  • What are their rules and tenets?
  • What are their holy texts?
• Do you still want to adhere to those God(s)? Why?
• If you could join another church, which one would it be and why?
• The usual call to actions
  • Spend some time with your family
  • Read a good book
  • Meet your neighbors
  • Enjoy the ride of your life
• The call to actions to help me.
  • Comment the article, I love the feedback and it helps me improve what I do
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  • Reach out to me and say Hi