Blogging Without God: Blogs, Social Media, and Empathy
Takeaways
- God, religion, and supernatural explanations of the world and consciousness are obsolete.
- The Internet and social media replace the hole left by the absence of god, connecting the world through technology and empathy.
- Understanding how we are socially connected informs our writing, blogging, thinking, and living.
Friedrich Nietzsche declared the death of god
If you’re not careful, Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy may just blow your mind. But, don’t let his ginormous mustache and the title “philosopher” scare you. His ideas can enrich your understanding of the modern world and our relationships to gods.
He died, crazy, in 1900, suffering through mental illness during most of his productive life, but he worked through it, and his views of our modern society are prophetic. Nietzsche’s ideas are at the heart of what I have to say about blogging and social media.
Nietzsche’s view of the modern world and his forward thinking may have saved humanity from self-destruction by preparing us for the demise of religion and god. He foresaw a moral breakdown if we could not live ethically without god.
Notice how he captures the modern human moral position in The Gay Science, the section titled “The Madman:”
“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this 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 we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”
When he declares the death of god, Nietzsche says that humans have outgrown the shackles of mythologies and religions through our evolution in knowledge and science.
Humans discovered our evolutionary origins, which made the concept of god unnecessary. Nietzche likely never believed that god was real, so the death of this human invention was metaphorical for him. He saw the waning believe of humans and knew that god was no longer necessary to explain our existence or behavior.
The essential question he asks is “How do we live moral lives now as the first creatures in evolution to gain knowledge that god does not exist?” Anciently, religion served a function, providing a moral and ethical infrastructure for human society, and some moral compass had to replace the fear of god for humans to live morally.
You can rephrase his question, “Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” in this way: “We humans must become creators, gods, if we are to survive without metaphysical gods.” We must embrace the role of gods in the sense that we govern our own moral existence. In the absence of a supernatural judge or jury, we must manage our own moral behavior.
The death of the concept of “god” created a social and moral burden for humans, who must nurture empathy and altruism in order to thrive. What Nietzsche could not foresee were the advances in technology leading to the internet and social media through which we are reconstructing the cultural infrastructure left empty by god’s death.
The internet and social media reconnect humans for the first time since god’s death
Where religion and imagined gods once connected humans in social networks, science and technology are linking humans closer together than ever before. Social media and the internet are a cultural glue that binds us together, in close, real networks
Blogging and social media facilitate a rise in empathy, and the imagined spiritual connection through religion is obsolete, dead. Nietzsche says we forge new connections as creators, taking over the role of god.
Companions, the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators, the creator seeks — those who write new values on new tablets. Companions, the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest.
He burdens us to be the creators of new values and stories, independently and collectively. He specifically invites writers of “new tablets,” a nice metaphor for blogging and social media. In a sense, bloggers now are the ultimate, connected more concretely through technology and social media than the ancient metaphysics.
The connected evolution of human technology and empathy
Technology originated in fire, the wheel, and stone wedges. In the past several thousands of years, writers and readers worked together to preserve the advances and discoveries science and technology, passing knowledge on to the next generation. Technology advanced exponentially with the knowledge of science, transmitted in writing.
Empathy is more ancient, primordial, and natural, evolving in humans over thousands of years, part of the intricate neural networks that adapted to the circumstances of early homonids.
Empathy is the capacity to feel what another creature experiences, and because of this human superpower, society, culture, and civilization evolved but not without brutal tragedies. Humans are capable of feeling what others experience, and that connects us to one another.
Anciently empathy evolved in monogamous relationships and traditional families, then small groups of families, small villages, and civilizations that thrived around fertile rivers.
Our ancestors shared knowledge and technology because of intimate connections created by empathy. Civilizations grew and progressed hand in hand with technology and because of the superpower — empathy.
Cultures evolved with increasing speed, and social media represents the current culmination of human technology and empathy through the internet.
The superteam: Human empathy, technology, civilization, and social media
We live and blog in a world with unlimited possibilities to act and write in kindness because empathy tells us that this benefits the most people across the globe. Empathy is a utilitarian moral compass. For the first time, we are citizens of a global civilization, and when you blog or write in social media, you enter that intricate network, influencing others with your writing.
Social media connects your blog with the world, and you are creating the tablets the Nietzsche describes, as humans emerge in a world of creators, without god.
What does this mean?
You exist in a pivotal moment in the history of the earth and humanity, with more knowledge and ability to act globally than our ancestors could have ever imagined. As you write your blog and broadcast it in social media, you have an undefined but infinite power for good, using empathy in your writing and reading.
Bloggers often become discouraged with writing, and thinking that they are wasting time and no one is listening. However, bloggers are infinitely powerful, stringing empathic and thoughtful words together on electronic devices.
Be a positive creator. Blog with the knowledge that you are a creator, and you can change the world in powerful ways. You are helping to evolve and adapt humanity as you blog and use social media, civilization evolving faster than ever.
Originally published at www.zipminis.com.
