mike

have you heard of the madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace and cried incessantly, "I'm looking for God, I'm looking for God!" as many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. "why did he get lost?" said one . "did he lose his way like a child?" said another. "or is he hiding? is he afraid of us? has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? thus they yelled and laughed. the madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances. "whither is God?" he cried. "i shall tell you. we have killed him- you and i. all of us murderers. but how have we done this? how were we able to drink up the sea? who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? what did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? whither is it moving now? whither are we moving now? away from all suns? are we not plunging continually? backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? is there any up or down left? are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? do we not feel the breath of empty space? has it not become colder? is not night and more night coming on all the time? must not lanterns be lit in the morning? do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. and we have killed him. how shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves? what was holiest and most powerful of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives. who will wipe the blood off us? what water is there for us to clean ourselves? what festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? must not we become gods simply to seem worthy of it? there has never been a greater deed; and whoever will be born after us- forsake of this deed, he will be part of a higher history than all history hitherto." here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. at last he threw his lantern on the ground and it broke and went out.... it had been related further that on the same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang his "requiem aeternam deo." let out and called to account, he said to have replied each time, "what are these churches now if they are not tombs and sepulchres of God?"-Nietzsche