Nietzsche and HeideggerIn this assignment, I will discuss what I have come to see as the relevance of Nietzsche and Heidegger for theorizing religion. I will place great emphasis on Nietzsche's concept of the "death of God" and how this concept poses a challenge to modernity and religious consciousness. With the rise of science and empiricism, Nietzsche argues that it is virtually impossible for a modern person to realistically believe in a Christian conception of God. However, the morality of Christianity remained in the background and, while continuing to influence people, Nietzsche predicted that the Europe of his time would soon experience a nihilistic evil. However, contrary to a superficial reading of Nietzsche, he did not condone nihilism, but rather diagnosed it in a societal context. As his concepts such as Ubermensch and the "Will to Power" show, Nietzsche had an anti-nihilistic attitude towards nihilism and predicted the human capacity to sublimate nihilism by controlling this conflict. After that, I will turn my attention to Heidegger. As I will explain, Heidegger was post-Nietzsche and therefore wrote after the “Death of God.” To explain Heidegger's philosophy, I will summarize his elaboration of what constitute, according to Heidegger, the fundamental questions of our time. Unlike Nietzsche, Heidegger does not dwell on the “death of God” because it has already happened, although, as I will explain, the “death of God” for Heidegger is rather an absence of God. Heidegger claims that we live in a kind of in-between state where we cannot truly know God. Furthermore, this has profound ontological and metaphysical implications, as Heidegger speaks at length about the difference between being and being, a middle...... middle of paper ...... uh", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Walter Arnold Kaufmann and RJ Hollingdale The Will to Power New York: Random House, 1967. Print.Morrison, Robert G. “Nietzsche. and Nirvana." In Nietzsche and the Gods. Ed. Weaver Santaniello. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001, pp. 87-113 Ruprecht Jr., Louis A. "Nietzsche, The Death of God and the Truth, or Why I Continue Like reading Nietzsche. "Journal of the American Academy of ReligionNietzsche, Friedrich. Religion:" Religion. : Gay science (paragraph 125); Beyond good and evil (paragraph 260) ; 2-13)