In 1882 Nietzsche publishes the Gay Science where he introduces
us to the Parable of the Madman. The Madman runs to the market square,
screaming and with a crazed look, asks, "Whither is God?" In the midst
of public laughter and ridicule, he answers his own question, "I will
tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers.
But 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?" For Nietzsche, the death of God was the result of progress moving forward. That is to say, progress was incompatible with faith in the divine.
In his book, Notes from the Cafe, R.F. Georgy revisits this idea of progress versus God and concludes that God is dead as well. The difference between Georgy and Nietzsche is that Georgy distinguishes between the God of philosophy and the God of the masses. The God of philosophy was killed by the collective hammering of philosophers who could no longer accommodate him, "The God of philosophy became an unnecessary hypothesis.
God was a problematic figure and a burden. If philosophers couldn't accommodate him, then it was easier to get rid of him altogether." What Georgy is arguing is that the death of God happened in the ivory tower. The God of the everyday would come later when science could no longer accommodate him. In one powerful summation, Georgy declares, "Our illustrious twenty-first century has finally buried God six feet under without any hope of resurrection. Our hands are stained; stained with the blood of our father, may he rest in peace. Mourn with me, gentlemen, we need to mourn together. I miss God already. I grant you he was an epistemically complicated thing for us to grasp, but he was necessary and useful."
Both Nietzsche and Georgy point to the inevitable demise of God as a result of reason, science, technology, and the march of progress. Nietzsche had the madman and Georgy has has the Cafe Dweller; both delusional characters who somehow have the capacity to see things the rest of us are incapable or too blind to see. Although Georgy's powerful novella, Notes from the Cafe, is an updated version of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, it is also an indictment against an age that worships information. I quote Georgy's summation of the information age, "Information paints no picture, sings no song, and writes no poem."
Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually?" For Nietzsche, the death of God was the result of progress moving forward. That is to say, progress was incompatible with faith in the divine.
In his book, Notes from the Cafe, R.F. Georgy revisits this idea of progress versus God and concludes that God is dead as well. The difference between Georgy and Nietzsche is that Georgy distinguishes between the God of philosophy and the God of the masses. The God of philosophy was killed by the collective hammering of philosophers who could no longer accommodate him, "The God of philosophy became an unnecessary hypothesis.
God was a problematic figure and a burden. If philosophers couldn't accommodate him, then it was easier to get rid of him altogether." What Georgy is arguing is that the death of God happened in the ivory tower. The God of the everyday would come later when science could no longer accommodate him. In one powerful summation, Georgy declares, "Our illustrious twenty-first century has finally buried God six feet under without any hope of resurrection. Our hands are stained; stained with the blood of our father, may he rest in peace. Mourn with me, gentlemen, we need to mourn together. I miss God already. I grant you he was an epistemically complicated thing for us to grasp, but he was necessary and useful."
Both Nietzsche and Georgy point to the inevitable demise of God as a result of reason, science, technology, and the march of progress. Nietzsche had the madman and Georgy has has the Cafe Dweller; both delusional characters who somehow have the capacity to see things the rest of us are incapable or too blind to see. Although Georgy's powerful novella, Notes from the Cafe, is an updated version of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, it is also an indictment against an age that worships information. I quote Georgy's summation of the information age, "Information paints no picture, sings no song, and writes no poem."
God is dead, Nietzsche declared some one hundred and thirty years
ago. In Notes from the Cafe, R.F. Georgy revisits the idea of the death
of God and declares God is dead once again. If Nietzsche killed God,
then Georgy buried him six feet under without any hope of resurrection.
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