Christianity's Disease, in Nietzsche, Will to Power, § 334

by Corry Shores
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Christianity's Disease

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Will to Power

§ 334

(March-June 1888)

Some among us believe in the innocence of becoming. We think that we will only become what we are, and not that we "ought to be thus and thus." And we do not think that vice and virtue cause desirable or undesirable occurrences in our lives. Rather, virtue and vice are consequences of this moment in becoming.

One becomes a decent man because one is a decent man: i.e. because one was born a capitalist of good instincts and prosperous circumstances.

Those who are born with disadvantages are prone to go to prisons or madhouses.

One who is physiologically degenerate is morally degenerate as well. Hence vice does not cause one ill; rather, illness causes one to have vice.

Christianity teaches that man is evil. But this would only be true if we understood all men to be degenerate. At least we can say that this holds wherever Christianity holds sway. For, Christianity leads to degeneration.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Will to Power. Ed. Walter Kaufmann. Transl Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1967.