The twentieth century witnessed bloodshed, genocide, unprecedented wars and other evils which were not expected by the majority. However, these events were prophesied by a German atheist Friedrich Nietzsche. The Death of God in the nineteenth century resulted in the death of absolute moral values and universal truth in the twentieth century, and eventually the death of man in this twenty-first century (Ruprecht, 1997).
Friedrich Nietzsche asserted that God is dead. This did not mean that God had never existed in human lives at any other time in history but God has died and therefore, stopped existing. This means that the Christian values, which dominated the mind of human beings, would not do that anymore. Nietzsche argued that human beings created God in their thoughts and allowed Christian values to influence their thinking. However, the nineteenth century human intellectual had surpassed the thought of God. The intelligence in this century made man to reject and neglect the existence of God. Intellectuals in the entire world were taking up atheism as the world view. This influenced the society in all parts of the universe (Williams, 2006). According to Friedrich Nietzsche, technologies and science made the idea of God unsustainable. He reasoned out that, since God is dead, traditional moral values have died with him. Therefore, the moral values in the Bible should not influence humankind since they also died with God.
According to Nietzsche, existence is a struggle. He viewed the good acts as the will to power. He accepted the Darwinian doctrine concerning survival for the fittest. Nietzsche stated that the supermen could show up and create their own values unlike the traditional values which had died with God. He urged them to replace soft Christianity values with other ones, which he called hard values. It could be possible through the will to power. Nietzsche felt that the soft values of Christianity such as dependence on God, humility, mercy, human equality, love for enemies, sympathy and self control were domineering human progress and creativity. These values supported mediocrity. On the other hand, the supermen’s hard values such as desire for conquest, total independence, passion, daring creativity, and self-assertion greatly encourage creativity. He considered the hard values as master of mortality and the soft values as slave mortality. Therefore, he promoted the hard values at the expense of the soft values (Nietzsche, 1974).
Nietzsche abandoned the notion of universal static truths. He considered truths as measly human creations which are mistaken for reality. The philosopher proclaimed the death of God, and ultimately the death of universal truth as well. He predicted that humankind would come to age in the twentieth century. It will occur when the atheist will discover the importance of living independently without God. The man will flourish like never before as he will be free from all moral, traditional and cultural chains. The changes will occur since man will become more than man, that is, overman or superman (Ruprecht, 1997).
Nietzsche was the predecessor of postmodernism. This was a crucial aspect of modernization which was based on such a thought that, through reason, humankind could get absolute morality and truth. The twentieth century history has confirmed Nietzsche's thesis correct. The Western culture's rejection of the Christian values has led to a rejection of both absolute moral values and universal truth. The twentieth century has proved to be the most evil century in the human history. Consequently, the Christian thinkers must aim to the sanguinity of Nietzsche (Heidegger, 1977).
In conclusion, Nietzsche reasoned out that God is dead. However, the death of God is a dangerous step backward. This is so because if God is dead, then humankind is dead too. Nietzsche argued that Western culture's denial of God would predictably lead to the denial of universal moral values and absolute truth. Nietzsche mistakenly believed that this denial of morality and truth would make humanity better by steering in the superman or the overman.