My Response to Nietzsche’s Comment . . .

My friend John, who occasionally comments on my blog and, by his own admission, is not a follower of Jesus, contributed this quote. If you are a believer, how would you respond?

“If the Christian dogmas of a revengeful God, universal sinfulness, election by divine grace and the danger of eternal damnation were true, it would be a sign of weak-mindedness and lack of character not to become a priest, apostle or hermit and, in fear and trembling, to work solely on one’s own salvation; it would be senseless to lose sight of ones eternal advantage for the sake of temporal comfort. If we may assume that these things are at any rate believed true, then the everyday Christian cuts a miserable figure; he is a man who really cannot count to three, and who precisely on account of his spiritual imbecility does not deserve to be punished so harshly as Christianity promises to punish him.”

from Nietzsche’s Human, all too Human, s.116, R.J. Hollingdale transl.