deepseek on zarathustra

@willtocode

Deepseek

Q: what does Zarathustra mean by this: backwards they looked towards dark ages: then indeed were delusion and faith another matter, the delirium of reason was God-similarity, and doubt was a sin

This passage from Thus Spoke Zarathustra ("Backwards they looked towards dark ages...") is a radical critique of pre-modern worldviews that conflated faith, reason, and power—and how modernity still clings to their shadows. Let's dissect it line by line:

1. "Backwards they looked towards dark ages"

Meaning: Nietzsche identifies a nostalgic gaze toward the medieval period (the "Dark Ages"), when religious dogma dominated epistemology.
Subtext: He’s attacking Romantic idealizations of the past (common in 19th-century Europe) as morally or spiritually superior.
Key irony: The "darkness" of that era was actually bright certainty for believers—a time when "delusion and faith" were indistinguishable from truth.

2. "Delusion and faith another matter"

Meaning: In the pre-modern world, faith and delusion were not opposites but allies.
Example: A medieval monk’s visions of angels were seen as divine revelation, not psychological phenomena.
Nietzsche’s jab: Modern people pride themselves on being "rational," but their secular beliefs (e.g., progress, democracy) are just new faiths with similar dogmatic structures.

3. "The delirium of reason was God-similarity"

Decoding "God-similarity" (Gottähnlichkeit):
Medieval scholastics (e.g., Aquinas) claimed human reason could approximate divine truth.
Nietzsche mocks this as "delirium"—reason drunkenly imagining itself godlike.
Modern parallel: Scientific materialism’s claim to absolute truth repeats the same hubris in secular form.

4. "Doubt was a sin"

Historical context: Inquisitions punished skepticism as heresy.
Nietzsche’s deeper point: All systems that equate doubt with evil are life-denying. They freeze thought to preserve power.
Today’s "sins": Woke orthodoxy, conspiracy theories, and ideological purity tests mirror this medieval mindset.

Zarathustra’s Warning

The passage isn’t just about the past—it’s a diagnosis of how modernity still worships certainty:

Religions → replaced by political ideologies and scientism (new "absolute truths").
God-similarity → now humanism’s faith in "progress".
Doubt as sin → today’s "cancel culture" against wrongthink.

The Antidote?

Zarathustra’s Übermensch must:

Destroy idols of certainty (religious or secular).
Embrace creative doubt ("To question is to love!").
Invent values beyond "sin/faith" binaries.

Nietzsche’s Foresight

He predicted 20th–21st century crises where:

"God is dead" → but moral absolutism returns as identity politics.
"Doubt is sin" → reappears as ideological conformity.

This passage isn’t history—it’s a mirror.

Would you like parallels to his Genealogy of Morals on how "sin" evolved into guilt?

ChatGPT 40's Response to the same prompt

This passage from Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche is rich with meaning, and it's a critique of the values and mindset of earlier religious or metaphysical ages. Here's a breakdown of what Zarathustra means:

"Backwards they looked towards dark ages"

Zarathustra is describing people who long for or idealize the past, particularly a past dominated by religion, superstition, and rigid belief systems—the "dark ages" in a metaphorical sense. These ages are seen as regressive, not progressive.

"Then indeed were delusion and faith another matter"

In those past times, faith and delusion were treated differently than they are in modernity.

Faith was not questioned—it was a virtue.
Delusion, by today’s standards, was often elevated, not condemned.

"The delirium of reason was God-similarity"

This is key.

The phrase "delirium of reason" refers to reason gone mad—when people try to rationalize God, or make reason serve faith.
In those times, to go mad with reason in the service of God was seen as closeness to the divine—to be mad like God.
It’s a critique of how theology and philosophy tried to reconcile reason and faith in a way that corrupted both.

"And doubt was a sin"

In those ages, questioning was evil.

To doubt God or religious truths was not seen as intellectual curiosity—it was moral failure.
Nietzsche is criticizing this suppression of doubt, because he sees doubt and questioning as essential to human growth and liberation.

In summary:

Zarathustra is looking at how past religious ages treated faith, reason, and doubt in a way that he sees as backward and oppressive.

Faith was blind and praised.
Reason was twisted to serve religious ends, producing a kind of madness.
Doubt, which Nietzsche values, was condemned.

He's urging us to break free from these outdated values—to embrace doubt, let reason be reason, and move forward, not backward.

Would you like me to tie this into Nietzsche’s broader philosophy of the death of God or the Übermensch?