192 Nietzsche"tragic poets" (2,107; HH I § 108). Suffering that can be cured relin-
quishes its dark, momentous pathos.
If religion were merely compensation for the inevitability of evil and
a means of casting spells on nature, it would have been an easy target of
criticism. Instead, several further aspects of religious sentiments gave
Nietzsche pause. Before delving into these additional aspects, he began,
as a strict and uncompromising follower of the existing enlightened cri-
tique of religion, to establish firm ground. "Never yet has a religion,
direcdy or indirecdy or as dogma or as allegory, held any truth" (2,110;
HH I § 110). We should not be taken in by the "theologian's trick" of
mingling scientific knowledge and edifying speculation. By the same
token, science warrants criticism if it "allows a religious comet's tail to
gleam out into the darkness of its ultimate vistas" (2,111; HH I § 110).
Religion should not pass itself off as science, and science should not
start sounding religious when its arguments are muddled. Nietzsche
made a case for clarity, recognizing, however, that the lure of religious
sentiments is not fully explained by disclosing their errors.
What is left to discover in religious sentiments? For one thing, there
is a penchant for feeling sinful, particularly in Christianity. Where does
this feeling originate, and what does it entail? It is surely astonishing that
man "considers himself even blacker and more evil than is actually the
case" (2,121; HHI § 124). Ancient Greek religion had not posited such
a dark view of man. On the contrary, since the gods shared their virtues
and vices with human beings, everyone could feel relieved. Human
beings even allowed the dark sides of their natures to be reflected in
their gods. Human, All Too Human provides an answer to the question of
how feelings of sin originated—an answer that appears in several varia-
tions throughout Nietzsche's later works. Christianity, it runs, was origi-
nally the religion of people who lived in a state of oppression and
misery. They were not noblemen and hence did not harbor noble
thoughts about themselves. It was a religion of low self-esteem.
Christianity sank mankind all the way down into the "deep sludge"
(2,118; HHI § 114) in which it already found itself.