What Could Be Beyond Nietzsche’s Word “God is Dead”? USA, Israel and Theological Politics

Abstract

This article will try to analyze an inconsistency of mentality and the background of its manifestations in politics. It will try to reveal the inconsistency and distortion of the use of belief in God and religion for political purposes to the detriment of the values represented by the concept of God. Nietzsche's “God is dead” is the best word that best identifies the state of religion and belief in God, which is positioned as a symbolic and pragmatic value in Western philosophy of life, both in theory and in practice. This being the case, especially in the USA, political discourses and policies, which include the belief in God and some religious references and which are closely related to the rest of the world, are essentially false, instrumental, self-interested and serve another purpose. Otherwise, when we look at the results of US policies in Gaza in particular and in the Middle East, Africa and third world countries in general, how can one explain the political attitude and the human tragedy that has confronted the conscience of not only the Islamic world but the whole world in the last few years? Only three motivations can make this possible: 1) Either you have adopted a naturalistic worldview in which man's brutality towards man is seen as a real law of nature. 2) Either you have to claim that God wants it that way, and there is no stronger motivation than the idea that “God wants it that way”. However, the concept of God itself is not consistent with this idea. 3) Or, even if you accept the essentially naturalistic worldview, you should be using whatever tools, institutions and beliefs are available for political purposes without recognizing any principles, in line with this worldview. This article will try to address how theology can be instrumentalised for the latter two mentalities. What does Nietzsche's word “God is dead” mean and what could be beyond what this word implies? As the title suggests, when we look at the practice of the world system led by the USA today, the fact that God has been brought back to be used against divine values means even more than “God is dead”. Theology is a human interpretation of the belief in God and religion. Regardless of the theology, is it possible to produce politics by referring to God and speaking in the name of God? The instrumentalisation of religion and God by politics is not new. It is an exploitation that religions have always faced. Examples of this exploitation can be seen in the history of almost all religions. What is new, however, that in spite of Nietzsche's statement “God is dead”, religion has been brought back as a “political tool”. In this article, it will be emphasized that this is a more serious situation than the saying ‘God is dead’. The title of US journalist Grace Hallsell's book Forcing God's Hand is a symbolic and striking expression of how theology is distorted. This expression is not used as a concept used by the Jewish faith and Christian evangelicals, but to express their way of thinking. What does it mean to believe in “chosen people” and “promised land” as Jewish theology claims, and does it legitimize everything? Is it possible to refer to God and to act from a belief such as ‘this is what God wants’? Can the concept of God itself allow this? By the expression ‘theological politics’ we mean here the instrumentalisation of theology for politics by putting theology at the service of politics, a characterization that we can call theologized politics. Therefore, politics is the main thing, and since it is a convenient tool, theology is used for purposes other than its own reason for being, even against of the goals of theology. Theology has been instrumentalised against of what the concept of God represents, precisely for the sake of what it is fighting for. All theologies that act on the principle of ‘this is what God wants’ are always open to exploitation. Today we are witnessing the most vile and cruel examples of the exploitation of theology. In particular, the belief in “chosen people” and “promised land” is used as a political motivation and a tool for the legitimization of all kinds of inhumane policies. It does not seem possible to say that these beliefs have a theological basis as they are contrary to the concept of God and the essence of religion. Although the politicians and intellectuals who guide the society know how inconsistent these beliefs are, it can be said that they embrace them because they are extremely favorable for manipulating large masses of people.