Page 155 - Islam and Buddhism

Buddhism and Materialist Western Culture

ate hatred for Christianity and promoted in its stead a pagan culture

and morality. His views helped form fascism in the 20th century, es-
pecially Nazism. Nietzsche battled with Christianity for espousing
the virtues of compassion, mercy, humility and trust in God.
Therefore, in fact, he was also against the moral principles of Islam
and genuine Judaism. He hated revealed religions not only because of

their moral principles, but mainly because of his fanatic atheism. In
his article on Nietzsche, American researcher Jason DeBoer writes
that "atheism is a crucial part of Nietzsche's thought," adding that:
His is not an unbiased critique: Nietzsche burns with hatred toward
Christianity, and his atheistic writings are extremely vitriolic. 10
As we can imagine, Nietzsche directed his hatred at revealed re-

ligions only, not at pagan ones. On the contrary, as DeBoer writes:
. . . Nietzsche, although one of the fiercest atheists in history, was in
fact not entirely anti-religious . . . [He] respected and admired many
of the aspects of other religions, including paganism and even
Buddhism. 11

In his review of Robert G. Morrison's book Nietzche and
Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, English academic
David R. Loy says the following on this matter:
Comparing Nietzsche with Buddhism has become something of a
cottage industry, and for good reason: there seems to be a deep res-
onance between them. Morrison points out that they share many
common features: both emphasise the centrality of humans in a
godless cosmos and neither looks to any external being or power for
their respective solutions to the problem of existence . . . Both un-
derstand [a] human being as an ever-changing flux of multiple psy-
chophysical forces, and within this flux there is no autonomous or
unchanging subject ('ego', 'soul'). 12

The sources of these erroneous ideas that Nietzsche shared with

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