Experiences and Beliefs: T. S. Eliot and Nietzsche

    T. S. Eliot was an anglocatholic. One of his main criticisms of the catholic church was the prominent idea at the time of separating your religion and culture. He felt that anglo catholicism fit him better than his previous unitarian faith as it was more structured. He was against any liberal movements within Christianity, which he blamed on growing up in one of the most liberal churches there was. Eliot believed that the Anglican church would fail and most members would then become Catholic. He believed that society was and should be led by Christian principles but not be a Christian society. He believed that Christians had to be baptized but could be baptized under any trinitarian denomination. He believed that the societal embrace of materialism and utilitarianism was foolish. He felt that people should not be strongly tied to their beliefs. He also believed that mystical experiences could not be used as testimonies for religion as you can find someone with these experiences from various religions. He also believed that all human relationships were delusions. He felt that any rational atheist must be a cynic. He did however say that “atheism should always be encouraged” and that the church could become “too strong.” When he said this about atheism he was specifically referring to people he identified as rational atheists. He felt it was bad to be an atheist if you didn’t want to believe in god but good if you just thought that it was irrational.

    Nietzsche rejected the idea of the Christian god as well as that of various other religions. He also said that religion was “affairs of the rabble.” There is however a debate as to whether or not he was an atheist. He seemed to view Dionysian pantheism as a solution to most of life’s problems. He also believed we should return to one communal religion and used the ancient Greeks as a reference. Perhaps most convincingly, he called himself a pagan and said that he was “obliged to imagine higher creatures than man, but to imagine them beyond good and evil.” He believed that it was good to prioritize yourself over others. He did believe that people were all a part of some interconnected whole but that it was more important to take care of each individual part than try to take care of the whole altogether. Nietzsche had 3 main concepts behind his beliefs. One is the will to power. He believed that only intellectual beings had the “desire for power” but that all living beings had the “will to power.” The desire for power is a conscious want to better yourself whereas the will to power is subconscious. He believed that the will to power is stronger than the will to live and beings will risk their lives in an attempt to better themselves. Another one of these concepts is the ubermensch. The ubermensch is a “higher quality man.” This man was meant to replace the idea of god with a more attainable option. The ubermensch was meant as a goal for the next generation. He was supposed to have reached the highest level of power yet and still focus on improving himself. The final of these concepts is the eternal recurrence. He believed that time is an infinite loop. He felt that at some point in time there would be someone with all of the same experiences and beliefs as him and, while being a different person, would essentially be another version of him. He also believed that the only value of the idea of god was to provide morals and the morals had changed, so god was no longer useful.