𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!”—As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose his way like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?—Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “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? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.

“How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us—for the sake of this deed he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.”

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern on the ground, and it broke into pieces and went out. “I have come too early," he said then; “my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.”

It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo. Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothing but: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

Source, references and notes:
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, para. 125, 1882, 1887; Walter Kaufmann ed., pp. 181–82, New York: Vintage, 1974; historyguide.org/europe/madman.html. Italics in original. Note: “gay” as used here by Nietzsche’s translator, had the older meaning of ‘joyous’ with no reference to sexuality.

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your lack of empathy is not a flex

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Please, give up 🫰... 🥲🤣

It feels a bit strange to admit this, but I grew up as a young Earth creationist in evangelical churches. I had books on the topic, one pastor lent me a textbook on it, and I could argue with a lot of people about why "macroevolution" was not real. But I was always talking with people who either believed the same as I did or who had a very limited understanding of evolution.

Then someone took the time to explain to me what evolution is, the mechanisms for how it operates, the evidence supporting evolution, etc. I suddenly had to ask myself how is evolution not true. I couldn't come up with an answer to that question, and the more that I have learned, the more that I have come to realize that evolution (both "microevolution" and "macroevolution") is true. Evolution underpins the entire field of biology, including disciplines like medicine. After that, creationism also fell apart for me.