Jefferson S.

Backong

Nietzsche and his Critique of Nihilism as an Affirmative Philosophy

Introduction
What is Nihilism? What is the importance of understanding Nihilism?
Nihilism is the conviction of an absolute untenability of existence when it comes to the
highest values one recognizes; plus the realization that we lack the least right to posit a
beyond in-itself of things that might be “divine” or morality incarnate. (Nietzsche 1968, 9) 1
From Plato up to the emergence of Christianity, we have been told or taught that
there is an Absolute one, a being who is above us all, the real reason why we find
meaning in our life, the absolute reason why we find meaning in our ordinary existence
in the world. Plato taught his students that there exists an Absolute, and that another
world, a transcendent world exists in the beyond. Accordingly, we are merely a replicate
of our own real image in the world beyond, and in order to get there, one must yield or
give importance to the world beyond by living a life that is dedicated to giving glory to
this world of transcendence. Christianity has taught us that in order to have a
meaningful life in this world we must live according to the will of the Absolute One, a
being that is commonly known as God. Christian beliefs also told us that we must live
according to the teachings and commandments of our God, that we must live a life full
of spirituality, a life that is dedicated to God in order for us to ascend in the world of
transcendence, or in common parlance, for us to ascend to heaven after our physical
body left this earthly. It taught us that in order to enrich our souls and make it worthy to
be in the presence of God, we must negate the earthly desires of our body for we are
created in the likeness of God, and as such, we must keep our bodies clean and
sacred. As aptly observed by Nietzsche, we find meaning in life because an Absolute
provides us with meaning.2
Religious nihilism is one that demands that human beings must sacrifice their
“earthly desires” and renounce this earthly world for the sake of heavenly reward. 3 It is
because of this kind of belief, this kind of negativity that Nietzsche declared the death of

1
Bolaños, Paolo A. Quest for Peace Amidst the Death of God, (PAP Conference Papers, Volume II), p. 46
2
Ibid
3
Bolaños, Paolo A. Nietzsche’s Critique of Nihilism, (Ad Veritatem, Vol.2 No. 2, March 2003), p. 545

1
Jefferson S. Backong

God. And the collapse of this common prejudice, this common belief is the phenomenon
of the death of God4 that Nietzsche introduced to us in his writings.

Nietzsche on the “Death of God”

Nietzsche believed that the teaching of Christianity or Christianity itself is an
ideology that is anchored on the basic biases that a man is just a passing thing when
compared to the Absolute. Accordingly, human being is just an accidental occurrence in
the flux of becoming and passing away and because of his smallness, man is granted
an absolute value5; the value of the meaning in his life which is provided by the
Absolute.6
When Nietzsche wrote that “God is dead,” he didn’t intend to attack the
Christians. The death of God for Nietzsche is the collapse of traditional values and the
experience of profound nihilism.7 As mentioned above, human beings tend to give more
meaning to the world beyond. People tend to prioritize an afterlife over their present life
in this earthly world. The death of God means the collapse of our traditional belief that
we need to negate our existence in this world in order to transcend into the world out
there. For Nietzsche, the death of God is an absolute phenomenon 8 a happening that
we cannot prevent because it is unavoidable. Time and again, over the years, we see
that nothing is permanent in this world. The values that we believe in before, the
teachings that we followed before had either collapse or fade away in obscurity. It is
something that is inevitable, something that we cannot control. People change and so
beliefs changes and so does the values that we hold onto. Change is needed in order to
improve our way of life, in order for us to attain a life of happiness and joy. And I believe
this is what Nietzsche meant when he said that the death of God is an inevitable
phenomenon because he believes that at some point, the traditional values and belief of
man in an afterlife and an Absolute one must collapse in order for man to take
responsibility of attaining a life of meaning without yielding to an Absolute.

4
Bolaños, Paolo A. Quest for Peace Amidst the Death of God, (PAP Conference Papers, Volume II), p. 46
5
Ibid, p. 47
6
Ibid, p. 46
7
Ibid
8
Ibid, p. 47

2
Jefferson S. Backong

When the death of God occurs, we are deprived of the security of absolute
values and eternal truths,9 and because we are left bare and naked when our traditional
values collapse, our initial reaction is to negate this. But Nietzsche teaches us that we
should overcome this initial reaction and form a new belief that is oriented towards
affirmation of life.
When Nietzsche declared the death of God, he did not recourse back to the
Absolute. Instead, he proposed that man should take the responsibility of creating
meaning for himself,10 and man can only do this when he learn to adapt a philosophy of
affirmation or when he start to affirm life and not negate it.

Nietzsche on Nihilism
For Nietzsche, Nihilism is the representation of a pathological transitional
stage of the modern age.
Why Nietzsche does considers nihilism as a mere transitional stage of the
modern era? What is the real essence or true meaning of nihilism for Nietzsche?
Nihilism is not literally the death of God. Nietzsche used the death of God
to represent a phenomenon, the collapse of absolute values and eternal truths. 11
Nihilism for Nietzsche is the opposition to the celebration of life. Nihilism is man’s lack of
awareness or a man’s denial of the collapse of the absolute values he once believed
in.12
Nietzsche considers nihilism as a transitional stage because he believe and posit
that in order to achieved a new world order, a man must pass through an evolution or a
changeover in order to emerge free of the bondage that negates his very own
existence.
Nietzsche used the camel to represent the past because it is in the past that we
are weighed down by the burden of laws and commandments that emanates from an
external source: the Absolute One.13 It is in this sense that Nietzsche comes up with
religious nihilism because religion or the belief in a Supreme Being tends to negate our
9
Ibid, p. 46
10
Ibid, p. 47
11
Bolaños, Paolo A. Nietzsche’s Critique of Nihilism, (Ad Veritatem, Vol.2 No. 2, March 2003), p. 541
12
Ibid
13
Ibid

3
Jefferson S. Backong

very own existence in this world. This is because we are taught by our religion to
denounce the earthly desires of our body and the earth itself so we can give greater
value to a being and a world beyond. We firmly believe that the meaning of our life on
this earth is based on a transcendent power and that everything we do in our life here
on earth is in preparation for that world beyond. As such, we can only do things that is in
accordance to the will of the Absolute one in order to be worthy of his presence in the
afterlife. Religious nihilism, as aptly stated is both life-denying and meaning-denying 14
because we negate our life, our existence, our meaning in this world in favor of a being
and a world beyond.
Nietzsche symbolizes the present through a lion. The present marks the
beginning of humanity’s emancipation from religious nihilism. 15 This is the time where
the man is freed from the bondage and iron that ties to him to the do’s and don’ts of
religion. Why did Nietzsche use the lion to represent the “present time?” I believed
Nietzsche used the lion to symbolize the present time because of its enduring
characteristic of strength, courage and leadership. In order for a man to emancipate
himself from the shackles that hold him to the negativity of his life, man must find the
strength to stand up and say, “No more!” No more to the negativity of life. No more to
the negation of my existence and the meaningless of life. Man must muster up the
courage to say, “I will no longer be bound to a belief, to a value that denies my very
existence in this world. I will start celebrating life and start affirming it to give meaning to
my existence without necessarily depending on a transcendent power.” The present
time is the time where man will no longer be compelled to believe in the Platonic-
Christian-Moral system,16 a time where man will start to embrace his existence in this
earthly world as meaningful not because he was given meaning by his moral/Christian
belief but because he is alive and celebrating life to the fullest.
Nietzsche describes the future as the final stage of the annihilation of nihilism
and represented it with a child.17 Nietzsche used the child to describe the future
because accordingly, the child’s innocence and sense of forgetting is a new beginning.

14
Ibid, p. 542
15
Ibid
16
Ibid, p. 543
17
Ibid, p. 543

4
Jefferson S. Backong

The future is the stage where man becomes the “divine” himself. The future is where
Man and God are united. The future is where the man is closer to his abode than ever
before.18

Nietzsche’s Affirmative Philosophy

Nietzsche’s declaration of the death of God and his stance on religious nihilism is
a negation of a negation. For Nietzsche, nihilism is negative but we can make nihilism
an affirmative philosophy of our life by reacting towards it positively.
It is undeniable that we are over-saturated by different religious teachings that in
order to ascend to the transcendent world and be worthy of the presence of the
transcendent One, we need to decry our human and earthly desires in this world and
abandon our earthly bodies. Nietzsche, on the other hand, calls on to us to bring back
authenticity or reality to our existence through a conscious and willful acceptance of our
life which is accepting the meaning of the earth. 19 F20or Nietzsche, accepting the
meaning of the earth is accepting life as it is. Life for Nietzsche is the highest expression
of all values, beyond good and evil, his center of intuition and inspiration. And in order to
accept and appreciate life as it is one must overcome nihilism or negativity. And man
can only do this when he starts learning to re-evaluate the values that had been
pounded and hammered onto him since he was a child; values that were considered
absolute and thus, inviolable. For Nietzsche, re-evaluating these values or least to say
as he calls it, Christian values is going beyond these traditional values and go beyond
what appears to be good and evil towards the very basic valuation, LIFE itself. 21
For Nietzsche, when man start re-evaluating his life and the values that he
believes in, it is already an affirmation of life, a celebration of life. Nihilism has forced
humanity to believe that only by denying our own existence and negating the very
meaning of life in this earthly world is the only way to live a good life because we must
always give preference and importance to the transcendent world or to the transcendent
one. By willing ourselves to re-evaluate these beliefs and values and accept the reality

18
Ibid
19
Ibid, p. 548
20
Ibid
21
Ibid

5
Jefferson S. Backong

that in order to attain a good full life, we must celebrate life and go beyond what we
normally believe in as the good and evil for us to attain the highest expression of values,
our life itself.

Conclusion
We live in a world and among humanity that believes that the greatest
satisfaction and achievement that a person can make is to live a life that is dedicated to
the fulfillment of God’s laws and commandments. Finding meaning in life by believing in
God and living according to his will is something that we have been holding on to and
continuing to believe in because it has been taught to us and passed down to us
through the ages. There is nothing wrong in believing that we are created in the image
and likeness of God and therefore we should live according to his will because our body
is God’s temple. What is not right is using this belief and the values teach by our religion
to justify the cruelty or pain that we inflict to ourselves and to our fellow human being.
Life is full of suffering, that is a fact, a reality that we have to accept but we cannot
justify sufferings we caused on other people by using the notion or belief that he is
bound to sacrifice because it is the will of God. It is in this essence, as I believe, that we
start negating life and denying the very existence of our life in this world. And it is in this
moment that we need to re-evaluate our values and beliefs because they have already
collapsed and crumbled down to our feet. It is in this moment that we should pay
attention to Nietzsche’s words and start re-evaluating our values. If we want to attain the
highest expression of all values, attain life itself, we must push ourselves to the core
and go beyond good and evil and start looking at life as it is because we can only find
peace in our own existence if we start affirming, celebrating and loving life as it is with
no conditions and no pre-requisites.