From Neo-Nihilism: The Philosophy of Power, by Peter Sjöstedt-H
Nietzsche contends that the objective morality that most western subjects put faith in today germinated two millennia ago with the advent of Christianity. When the Jews became subject to Roman rule, their means of overcoming the curtailment of power was the revaluation of Roman values, a revaluation that became the dominant religion of the world. Roman values were an example of Nietzsche named ‘master morality’; a system that held characteristics such as strength, honor, pride, courage, fortitude, etc., as the highest of values. A cult emerged which completely inversed master morality. It was a cult which preached weakness, humility, compassion, faith, hope and charity to be the highest virtues. Such characteristics of course empowered the weak–those who needed charity, hope, equality, compassion given to them, a God who blessed them as being weak. A weakling who has nothing to be proud of will gain power by proliferating the view that humility is a virtue, pride a vice. ‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth’ Jesus said, Matthew reported. This kind of ideology that ennobles the weak for being weak Nietzsche calls ‘slave morality.’ It is weakness and mediocrity dressed as virtue. This inverted ideology quickly spread, despite Roman criminalisation of it. Almost three centuries after Jesus’ alleged resurrection, Constantine legalised and converted to Christianity. Soon thereafter the Roman Empire fell. This slave morality has now spread to two billion adherents after two millennia.
I post this not to be incendiary or vicious, but to hopefully open a mind up to the possibility that there is a reason that Christianity has proliferated that has nothing to do with its truthfulness, or even it’s usefulness. It may have indeed been useful to the Roman slaves, but it amounted to little more than a memetic salve that told them they were the truly good people, by virtue of their being weak and oppressed.
In a world where Christians outnumber every other world religion, and where its adherents are some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in the Western world, it’s hardly any longer the religion of the “oppressed.” Yet this is how many, if not all, of its adherents see themselves. They are fighting against the world, against a power that threatens to overwhelm them and seeks to stamp out their way of life.
I think there are certain tenets of Christianity that are worth spreading: humility, compassion, and charity, to name a few. But there is no reason to think that these qualities make Christianity the “right” religion, or even the right way to live.
Christianity survived solely because it, like all religions, is a system of obtaining–and maintaining–power.
The Vulcan Buddha 