Tuhan Telah Mati: Tafsir atas "The Gay Science 125"

Perjumpaan dengan Wagner seorang seniman adalah perjumpaan yang banyak mempengaruhi pemikiran Nietzsche. Sebagai pencinta musik dan puisi, Nietzsche menyukai musikdan pertunjukan-pertunjukan Wagner. Beberapa karya Wagner yang disukai oleh Nietzsche adalah:

Art and revolution (juli 1849). ... Wagner berpendapat bahwa awalnya seni-seni secara individual (music, drama, teater, dan sebagainya) merupakan satu kesatuan yang lengkap dan sempurnah. Bentuk seni semacam ini hanya ada pada drama tragedy Yunani dan pudar sekitar abad kelima Sebelum Masehi (SM) ketika terbagi menjadi bermacam-macam komponen. Sesudah itu, dan sampai sekarang, orang lebih banyak menengok ke filsafat daripada seni untuk memahami dunia. oleh karena itu, seni dalam bentuknya yang paling tinggi dan sempurnah adalah pra-Kristiani.The artwork the future (September 1849). Di sini Wagner mengemukakan pendapat bahwa segala macam temuan terbesar umat manusia, dari bahasa sampai masyarakat, merupakan produk dari volk (folk dalam bahasa Ingris; rakyat). Opera dan drama (Januari 1851). .... A Communication to my Friends (Agustus 1851).[3]

Karya-karya ini disukai oleh Nietzsche sebagai seorang yang memang mencintai seni. Tetapi pada akhirnya Nietzsche tersadar ketika menghadiri festival trilogi ring Wagner. Nietzsche sadar bahwa Wagner bukanlah seperti yang dia bayangkan. Nietzsche melihat trilogi ring sebagai anti semit, hal yang tidak disukai oleh Nietzsche. Meskipun demikian ketika buku the birth of tragedy diterbitkan, para komentator Nietzsche menyebut buku itu masih ada dalam bayang-bayang Wagner

 Menafsir Nietzsche dalam The Gay Science 125

Dalam buku the gay science (ilmu yang mengasyikkan) bagian 125 Nietzsche bercerita tentang seorang gila yang membawa lampu lentera di pagi hari yang cerah ke pasar mencari Tuhan:

The madman. - Haven't you heard of that madman who in the brightmorning lit a lantern and ranaround the marketplace crying incessantly,'I'm looking for God! l'm looking for God!' Since many of those whodid not believe in God were standing around together just then, hecaused great laughter. Has he been lost, then? asked one. 

Did he lose hisway like a child? asked another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Hashe gone to sea? Emigrated? - Thus they shouted and laughed, oneinterrupting the other. The madman jumped into their midst andpierced them with his eyes. 'Where is God?' he cried; 'I'll tel1 you! Wehave kil/ed him - you and I! Wc are all his murderers. But how did wc dothis? How were wc able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the spange towipe away the entire horizon? What were wc doing when wc unchainedthis earth from its sun? Where is it moving to now? Where are wcmoving to? 

Away from all suns? Are wc not continually falling? Andbackwards, sidewards, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an up anda down? Aren't wc straying as though through an infinite nothing? Isn'tempty space breathing at us? Hasn't it got colder? Isn't night and morenight coming again and again? Don't lanterns have to be lit in themorning? Do wc still hear nothing of the noise of the grave-diggers whoare burying God? Do wc still smell nothing of the divine decomposition?- Gods, too, decompose! God is dead! God remains dead! 

And wchave killed him! How can wc console ourselves, the murderers of allmurderersl The holiest and the mightiest thing the world has everpossessed has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this bloodfrom us? With what water could wc clean ourselves? What festivals ofatonement, what holy games will wc have to invent for ourselves? Is themagnitude of this deed not too great for us? Do wc not ourselves have tobecome gods merely to appear worthy of it? 

There was never a greaterdeed - and whoever is horn af ter us will on account of this deed belongto a higher history than all history up to now!' Here the madman fellsilent and looked again at his listeners; they too were silent and lookedat him disconcertedly. Finally he threw his lantern on the ground sothat it broke into pieces and went out. 'I come too early', he then said;'my time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, wandering;it has not yet reached the ears of men. 

Lightning and thunder needtime; the light of the stars needs time; deeds need time, even after theyare done, in arder to be seen and heard. This deed is still more remoteto them than the remotest stars - and yet they have done it themselves!' Itis still recounted how on the same day the madman forced his way intoseveral churches and there started singing his requiem aeternam deo.10Led out and called to account, he is said always to have replied nothingbut, 'What then are these churches now if not the tombs and sepulchers of God?'[4]