“Peace of soul and happiness” is in believing- admitted Nietzsche

[paarsurrey]

“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

 

[Ouroboros]

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.

Your quote doesn't say that he did. It looks more like he creates a juxtaposition between peace and inquiry. Someone who wants to have peace of mind should just believe and not inquire so much, while someone who has an inquiring mind to find the truth is not at peace at all. It has nothing to do with religious belief necessarily, but in general the opposition of knowing based on evidence vs. believing without evidence. What he's saying is basically "ignorance is bliss."

 

[McBell]

It looks more like he creates a juxtaposition between peace and inquiry.

Seems to me that that was the whole point of his quote.
A point that is lost on far to many people...

 

[Deathbydefault]

“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

My post will be to both the OP and thread title.

So what if peace and happiness was really in believing?
Peace and happiness isn't reality.

I'm not completely knowledgeable of this man or his works, this I must admit now.
But, in regards to your seeming response to the quote you posted, it seems to me you are inferring a meaning you don't know is there.
The quote seems to present that holding a skeptical and questioning position leads to gaining knowledge.

 

[columbus]

Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God.

That is the usual meaning of the word atheist.

One of the biggest differences between you and me is this. You have a slavish devotion to human authority that I don't share. It doesn't matter to me if a famous atheist says something, either I find it interesting and useful or else I don't. In this case I do, but in others I don't.
I don't believe in anything just because a particular human said it. That is why I don't believe in revealed religion. It is mostly about picking the right human or group and believing whatever they claim, even when they are obviously wrong.
Tom

 

[Ouroboros]

My post will be to both the OP and thread title.

So what if peace and happiness was really in believing?
Peace and happiness isn't reality.

I'm not completely knowledgeable of this man or his works, this I must admit now.
But, in regards to your seeming response to the quote you posted, it seems to me you are inferring a meaning you don't know is there.
The quote seems to present that holding a skeptical and questioning position leads to gaining knowledge.

Another point is that Nietzsche didn't necessarily talk about religious beliefs. Atheists don't have the religious belief, but that doesn't mean they have no beliefs at all in anything. I believe my wife loves me. I don't have to search for the truth and have evidence for it. I just trust her. I have faith in that she does love me. It gives me peace of mind. So the Nietzsche quote can be interpreted for any situation, not necessarily religion or God. Also, atheists do believe the universe is extremely big and that there are billions of galaxies, even if they haven't gone there and seen them first hand. Also, I'm sure most atheists trust the quantum physics is true, even though it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to the logical mind.

 

[Nietzsche]

View attachment 11904
“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

sigh.

That's from a letter Nietzsche wrote to his sister(Elizabeth, who would later become a nazi *****). When he was 19. His sister replied;

"it is much easier not to believe than the opposite, and the difficult thing is likely to be the right course to take…"

Nietzsche then himself replied;


… Concerning your basic principle, that truth is always to be found on the side of the more difficult, I agree in part. However, it is difficult to believe that 2 x 2 does not equal 4. Does that make it therefore truer?

On the other hand, is it really so difficult simply to accept as true everything we have been taught, and which has gradually taken firm root in us, and is thought true by the circle of our relatives and many good people, and which, moreover, really does comfort and elevate men? Is that more difficult than to venture on new paths, at odds with custom, in the insecurity that attends independence, experiencing many mood-swings and even troubles of conscience, often disconsolate, but always with the true, the beautiful and the good as our goal?

Is the most important thing to arrive at that view of God, world and reconciliation which makes us feel most comfortable? Is not the true inquirer totally indifferent to what the result of his inquiries might be? When we inquire, are we seeking for rest, peace, happiness? Not so; we seek only truth even though it be in the highest degree ugly and repellent.

Still one final question: if we had believed from our youth onwards that all salvation issued from someone other than Jesus, from Mohammed for example, is it not certain that we should have experienced the same blessings? It is the faith that makes blessed, not the objective reality that stands behind the faith. I write this to you, dear Lisbeth, simply with the view of meeting the line of proof usually adopted by religious people, who appeal to their inner experiences to demonstrate the infallibility of their faith. Every true faith is infallible, it accomplishes what the person holding the faith hopes to find in it, but that does not offer the slightest support for a proof of its objective truth.

Here the ways of men divide: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

You're just proving him right.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

I'm no stranger to Nietzsche, but I'm finding this thread both insightful and deflating.

Is there really no possible marriage between "peace" and "inquiry"?

Is this discussion confined only to the issue of (a)theism or life in general?

 

[Ouroboros]

Is there really no possible marriage between "peace" and "inquiry"?

Depends on what one would call peace of mind.

But I know from personal experience that in younger days I were very dedicated to understand and learn about the world and how it works. I was searching for truths of all kinds, and it doesn't make your mind at ease at all. Thoughts rambling through the head when you try to sleep, impossible to rest. Mind constantly searching and analyzing. With age it has calmed down. Not as interested in proving objective truths in everything anymore.

On the other hand, let's say you're about to make a journey. You borrow a boat. You never used this boat before, and you don't know if it's safe. Either you trust the boat to be safe, but constantly worry anyway deep down because you're not sure, or you check into the history of the boat, talk to the owner, check out the boat, and learn as much as you can to put your mind at peace, knowing, not just believing, that the boat is indeed safe.

So yeah, it depends.

 

[columbus]

Is there really no possible marriage between "peace" and "inquiry"?

No, there isn't. Inquiry will not often lead to the bliss of ignorance.

And frankly, revealed religion puts a wedge between them. The belief that some ancient prophet knew more than we do, due to some magical powers that won't hold up to inquiry, is why religion causes so much violence. You can not ask modern questions of ancient prophets in a peaceful way. It will result in war and violence, because that is the way religions are designed. Otherwise we'd stop paying attention to them, and they would go away.
Tom

 

[Sunstone]

View attachment 11904
“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

You have a petty interpretation of Nietzsche.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.

You should probably read more Nietzsche before making such a claim and taking his letter out of context. To Nietzsche, belief and religion were disgusting and nihilistic, and his words of bitterness would have been spilled like acid onto those who thought atheism inherently lead to "truth" (and, of course, Nietzsche wrote at length about "truth" and how we, and especially philosophers before him, have it all wrong).

 

[George-ananda]

“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche was an Atheist in the sense that he lacked belief in God. It is unlikely that he was a Deist because he believed that outside world was bereft of meaning.

Nietzsche is wrong that Atheism necessarily leads to Truth.
Regards

I inquired and found God but not quite the traditional God of Nietzsche's time.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

Depends on what one would call peace of mind.

On the other hand, let's say you're about to make a journey. You borrow a boat. You never used this boat before, and you don't know if it's safe. Either you trust the boat to be safe, but constantly worry anyway deep down because you're not sure, or you check into the history of the boat, talk to the owner, check out the boat, and learn as much as you can to put your mind at peace, knowing, not just believing, that the boat is indeed safe..

This reminds me of a discussion I once had with a friend who said, I think by paraphrasing Bob Marley, that the worst thing that could happen to a person is a diagnosis.

That said, my friend went on to say that if, hypothetically, he had cancer, he'd prefer not to know and continue enjoying his life until the untreated cancer would eventually kill him earlier than if he were to suffer through surgery and chemotherapy in exchange for prolonging his life.

Maybe the marriage is more quantum-cosmic. For example: the above insight and conclusion to obtain peace could have only be arrived at by inquiry.

This topic has also gone deep down the track of arbitrarily defining terms like "peace of soul" and "happiness".

For the sake of argument: would a concept of "total happiness" mean being literally braindead or non-existent?

Maybe these Nietzschean insights regarding the nature of truth, inquiry, peace and happiness can serve as a more broad life lesson about learning where to pick our battles in a world that is War All The Time.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Maybe these Nietzschean insights regarding the nature of truth, inquiry, peace and happiness can serve as a more broad life lesson about learning where to pick our battles in a world that is War All The Time.

You cannot take the bit of the OP as how Nietzsche regarded such things. To have an inkling of an idea about what he wrote about things like the nature of truth, happiness, and so on, you must read his works such as Beyond Good and Evil and Genealogy of Morals. Because we also tend to romanticize Nietzsche, and ignore huge chunks of his works, many would be utterly shocked to read what he actually wrote and thought. According to Nietzsche, we wouldn't know the truth if it came up to us and bit us on the ***.
http://www.strange-loops.com/philtruthwoman.html

 

[RedDragon94]

“if you wish to strive for peace of soul and happiness, then believe; if you wish to be a disciple of truth, then inquire.”

Which is more important?

 

[LuisDantas]

@paarsurrey , sometimes it is very hard to avoid the feeling that you neither understand atheism and atheists nor wants to.

 

[Jiddanand]

Peace and happiness are not stationary.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

You cannot take the bit of the OP as how Nietzsche regarded such things. To have an inkling of an idea about what he wrote about things like the nature of truth, happiness, and so on, you must read his works such as Beyond Good and Evil and Genealogy of Morals. Because we also tend to romanticize Nietzsche, and ignore huge chunks of his works, many would be utterly shocked to read what he actually wrote and thought. According to Nietzsche, we wouldn't know the truth if it came up to us and bit us on the ***.

I didn't think I did.

I did read Thus Spoke Zarathustra and huge chunks of Beyond Good and Evil and other passages of his when I was younger. It sort of consolidated and expanded my pre-conceived ideas about the fragility of truth and deconstruction amounting to an appreciation of polysemy. I can't remember ever using Nietzsche as a particular authority for anything.