The Philosophy of Religion of F. Nietzsche
Lecture on the course "Religious Studies" by Elena Leonidovna Pavlova, PhD, Associate Professor.
Video lecture on the course "Religious Studies": "F. Nietzsche's Philosophy of Religion."
"What if, day or night, a demon were to creep up on you in your lonely solitude and say: 'This life, as you now live it, you will have to live again and again, countless times more; and nothing in it will be new, but every pain and every pleasure, every thought and every breath, and everything indescribably small and great in your life will have to return to you anew, and all in the same order and the same sequence. The eternal hourglass of existence turns over and over again—and you along with it, a grain of sand!'" "Would you not throw yourself backwards, gnashing your teeth and cursing the demon who spoke thus? Or have you ever experienced a monstrous moment when you answered him: 'You are a god, and never have I heard anything more divine!' Had this thought taken possession of you, it would have transformed you and perhaps ground you to dust; the question that accompanies everything and everyone: 'Do you want this again, and countless more times?' would have weighed heavily on your actions! Or how well would you have treated yourself and life, so as to no longer crave anything but this final, eternal confirmation and seal?" (Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra")