Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a famous book by Fredrich Nietzsche, written in the later part of the 19th century. This book details many of the ideas that have become synonymous with Nietzsche: God is dead, the Superman, the rejection of all Christian ideals.

Zarathustra was the founder of Zoroastrianism, one of the first monothestic religions. Zorostrianism was from Iran and was about 1000 years before Christ. Zarathustra believed in a god he called Ahura Mazda. I am not sure why Nietzsche used the name of Zarathustra in his novel as Zarathustra did not stand for anything that was written about in his book.

I confess that I have not read the entire book, but I have watched several youtube videos about it and read many reviews and synopsis’ of it. Also, I do not claim to be an expert on Nietzsche’s works or philosophies, but I have read his Beyond Good and Evil book. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is widely regarded as one of the most important works of philosophy and atheism ever written. Multiple sources have claimed that Nietzsche regarded it as the work he was most proud of.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an allegory of a Christ-like or Mohammed-like or Buddha-like prophet named Zarathustra. He goes on a quest for knowledge in the wilderness and then gathers disciples He then shares his philosophies and ends up being misunderstood by people in general. Some of the concepts Zarathustra mentions is that in order to become a Superman, man must go through three stages: the Camel, the Lion, and the Child. He also talks about the recursive nature of life. He discusses how there is nothing new under the sun and everything repeats.

The more I learned about this book, the more I chuckled. I did not chuckle because the information I saw and read about the book was humorous. I chuckled because I saw in Zarathursta’s journey man’s and my own, the one true sin-as common as dirt and as old as the very beginning of everything. This sin is mentioned again and again in stories in God’s Word, the Bible. Thus Spoke Zarathustra tells man to embrace the sin of putting oneself in God’s place. This was Adam’s sin. This was Samson’s sin. This was Saul’s and David’s and Solomon’s sin. This was my sin yesterday, today, and it will be my sin again tomorrow. Now, I guess if your view of life is that God is dead, then you have no choice to make yourself a god—we all need to have one someplace. However, both personally and for society, this has led only to disaster. I definitely believe that this view has led to communism, fascism, the dictatorships like Pol Pot and Idi Amin. It has also led to failed European economies. However, the Christian view (the view that Nietzsche hated so much and a lot of atheists do) is that only the Lord belongs on the throne of our lives. But European theocracies have also led to disaster. But the American experiment, founded by and women who put the Lord on the throne of THEIR lives, still stands.

1 Samuel 15:22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

———————————————————————————————-W.