Wicked Things Written on the Sky
It is widely believed by historians of philosophy that the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ushered in the 20th Century with his infamous phrase, “ God is dead …” [1] Nietzsche himself died in 1900. Obviously atheism didn’t begin in the 19th Century with Nietzsche. His thought was the culmination of a long line of thinkers which reached back into the 16th and 17th Centuries [2]. The European Enlightenment (as it was called) promised grand and wonderful things when human reason finally divorced itself from the shackles of faith [3]. Using the newly found tools of the “scientific method,” (via Francis Bacon & Benedict Spinoza ); a humanistic morality which was becoming increasingly devoid of God (via Nietzsche); as well as the burgeoning industrial revolution with its new technologies, the 20th Century was set take mankind to new heights never before dreamt of – a utopia of sorts. Some who were wise, however, could see that “ wicked things were written on
