The writings of Nietzsche have been very influential and, although I do not agree most of what he says, I find his logic and thought process very interesting. To some extent, I agree with his basic argument that morality is anti-nature. By this I mean that it goes against human nature to act morally. Human nature is corrupt, selfish, and sinful. If everyone did as they wanted to and not as they ought to, the world would be a much darker place.
I feel that many of Nietzsche’s conclusions were based on misconceptions of the church and/or misconceptions the church had on the teachings of Christ. First of all, Nietzsche talks about the denial of passions in the church. His experiences with the church may have been different from mine, but what he says in paragraph 2 is not how the church portrays passion. He states that the church hates passion, but this is not true. Let’s take sex for example. God loves sex, He created sex and even encourages it—within the context that He created it for—marriage. God values passion, but He also values self-control. It is important to remember that even a good thing used in the wrong way can be bad. Similarly, a seemingly good act done for with wrong motives is not a good at all. This is where legalism comes in. Legalism is following the “rules” just for the sake of following the rules and not out of love for God and desire to please Him. It has been a big problem in the church for pretty much as long as it has existed. Many people think that the Bible is just a book of rules, and if you break any of these rules then you are going to go to hell. This is not entirely true. Although there are many instructions on how to live a godly life in the Bible, the key message is this: we no longer bound by the law. God did not send Jesus to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17).
In paragraph 5, Nietzsche states that the church wants to destroy its enemies, but as stated in the Sermon on the Mount (which Nietzsche refers to in paragraph 1) Christians are to love their enemies. This is where the church often stumbles. They think that just because someone does not follow God they should be judged, shunned, and condemned. This is entirely non-biblical. Christians are commanded to love everyone—regardless of if they are drinkers, smokers, homosexuals, cheaters, whatever.
Nietzsche seems like he thinks that the church denies intelligence and discourages learning. This has happened in the past, but wrongfully so. Why would God give us minds if He did not want us to use them?
In conclusion, I feel that many of the points made by Nietzsche are problems with the church, not with Christianity. They are based off of imperfection and misinterpretations made by the church and not flaws in the Bible itself.