Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Slave Morality begins when resentment become creative and creates values," Friedrich Nietzsche believed that Christianity was in fact a product of Slave Morality. Slave Morality came about in response to the original higher level of morals, called Master Morality. This form of morality is associated with the struggle between good and bad, strong and weak. In response to this original form of morality came Slave Morality which is more associated with the details of the struggle between good and evil, such as the connotations of humbleness as good and selfishness as bad.

Slave Morality is the essence of Christianity. The morals associated with Christianity, such as meekness, piety, and charity are key examples of a Slave Morality dynamic. They come out the public's desire to be good, and therefore fulfill the Master Morality to the fullest. Figures such as Jesus Christ become prime examples of what it is like to fulfill the belief systems found within the Slave-Master dynamic of morality. Nietzsche believed this form of morality to a plague on the minds of the citizens of Europe. In this dynamic they could only reaffirm their position as good Christian citizens through the condemnation of others as evil; good does not exist without the defining of its opposite, evil.

Together the two forms of morality combine to create the systems of morals and social balances which govern Christian nations all over the world. Along with slave morality being associated with the Christian religion, it is also closely related to Judaism as well. These two make up most of the religious beliefs of the Western world, and therefore were a major source of criticism for Nietzsche. He believed that all forms of morality associated with religious beliefs were a product of society's inability to cope with the real nature of life. He also believed religion to be almost like a drug to many people who could not live life without the need to believe in a false belief of a father figure guiding them and looking out for them. Christianity, although it preaches goodness, relies on the sole fact that it condemns others as evil. Therefore the essential foundations on which the Christian religion is based on is threatened by the very practice which defines it.