Religion

Nietzsche's relation to religion was problematic. His belief in the complete and uncompromising individuality that previously had been defended by German romanticists such as Heinrich von Kleist led him to viciously attack the inherent dogmatic qualities of religious practice and formation. At the same time he drew notable influence from Germanic mythology and spiritual values, in which he saw a radical contrast to modern Judeo-Christian beliefs. In his famous work Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche writes:

The noble man honours in himself the powerful one, him also who has power over himself, who knows how to speak and how to keep silence, who takes pleasure in subjecting himself to severity and hardness, and has reverence for all that is severe and hard. "Wotan placed a hard heart in my breast," says an old Scandinavian Saga: it is thus rightly expressed from the soul of a proud Viking. (Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter IX, §260)

But most importantly, religion symbolized to Nietzsche the creation of static, moral laws, upholding virtues that seemed to draw away from life and demonize it, instead of celebrating it with joy and passion. He systematically examined the inherent psychological motives behind the creation of morality and concluded that it seemed to be a way for people to establish a parallel world in which the uncomfortable sides to reality, such as death, pain, inequality, and struggle, were banned and declared morally "wrong." This led Nietzsche on a warrior's path, in turn condemning those who tried to condemn life, to end with the controversial news to the modern world: "God is dead!"