Twilight of the Idols

Nietzsche criticizes Christian morality, which calls for the elimination of all passions. He cites the Sermon on the Mount (from the New Testament) as an example of this type of morality (on sexuality, the Sermon states: “‘if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out.’”). The Church deals with passions by eliminating or “castrat[ing]” them rather than trying to see the good in them. Nietzsche suggests that attacking passions is “to attack life at its roots,” therefore “the practice of the Church is hostile to life…”

2. The idea that a person can control their desires by eliminating them completely is for “weak-willed” people who can’t practice moderation. The Church holds that people who can’t control their desires are “degenerate.” And yet, Nietzsche notes (citing as examples the moral views of pleasure held by priests, philosophers, and artists), we may observe that anti-pleasure views come not from “the impotent, nor the ascetics,” but from people incapable of controlling their impulses. 

3. Nietzsche defines love as “the spiritualization of sensuality.” To Nietzsche, this formulation “is a great triumph over Christianity.” Another triumph is “our spiritualization of enmity.” Throughout history, the Church has sought to eliminate its enemies (the immoralists and non-Christians, for instance). But there’s an advantage to having an enemy: it gives a person meaning and purpose. Life would be boring and pointless if there were no conflict. This type of thinking is relevant to politics, too—there’s a “self-preserv[ing]” advantage to having an opposing party. For example, the newly formed Reich needs an enemy to make its existence necessary.

4. Nietzsche argues that “an instinct of life” propels “[a]ll naturalism in morality, that is all healthy morality.” This natural morality is a positive force  driven by the senses—by human instinct. By contrast, “anti-natural morality” (which encompasses nearly all commonly taught views of morality) views human instinct as sinful and ultimately places God as life’s enemy.

5. To Nietzsche, Christian morality’s hostility toward life is laughable. For in order to say anything about the value of life, a person would need to have lived beyond life—which no living person who makes value judgments about life has done. An anti-nature view of morality (as espoused by Christianity and philosophers like Schopenhauer) that places God in opposition to life values a life that is “declining, debilitated, weary, [and] condemned.” In this way, anti-natural morality is “the instinct of décadence itself.”

6. Nietzsche criticizes moralists’ insistence that people conform to a standardized mode of behavior that is unnatural and harmful to life. By contrast, immoralists are more accepting of variable behaviors and belief systems.