Book Two: A Criticism of the Highest Values That Have Prevailed Hitherto
I: Criticism of Religion§245 Let any one think of the loss which all human institutions suffer, when a divine and transcendental, higher sphere is postulated which must first sanction these institutions! By recognising their worth in this sanction alone (as in the case of marriage, for instance) their natural dignity is reduced and under certain circumstances denied –. Nature is spitefully misjudged in the same ratio as the anti-natural notion of a God is held in honour. “Nature” then comes to mean no more than “contemptible”, “bad” –.
The fatal nature of a belief in God as the reality of the highest moral qualities: through it, all real values were denied and systematically regarded as valueless. Thus Anti-Nature ascended the throne. With relentless logic the last step was reached and this was the absolute demand to deny Nature.
This thought occurs throughout Nietzsche’s writings, but never quite so explicitly. And, of course, he certainly pegged the Southern Baptist teaching that marriage is no more than cosmic permission for sexual intercourse.