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From: lai@ucbvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: So what if God is dead?
Message-ID: <136@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Oct-83 02:17:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.136
Posted: Thu Oct 20 02:17:03 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Oct-83 01:18:18 EDT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Computer Science
Lines: 24


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    Why is man so stupid?  Why is it  that  things  such  as
churches  still exist, still pull in hundreds of millions of
people at least physically if not mentally?

    I think that the reason is that, yes, man _i_s generally a
herd  animal.   One of aphorisms of Nietzsche tells of a man
who is running away from the herd, and the herd follows  him
because he is running ahead of him.  The herd is stupid.  It
does not think.  It is perfectly content to pay lip  service
to the comforting idea of a God.  As long as the belief in a
God remains a comforting one, the mass of humanity will  not
be able to wean itself from its drugged thrall.

   The dilemma of the philosopher is that  the  herd  _a_l_w_a_y_s
follows  a  leader,  but seldom very far.  After its initial
amusement, it returns to graze upon more  familiar  grounds.
Thus  we have God a hundred years after Nietzsche proclaimed
His death...
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                                       Nicholas D.W.S.V. Lai