The Advance of Religion and Morality on Mankind: Dawkins and NietzscheA Zeitgeist is the spirit or mood of a particular era in history based on the ideas and beliefs of that time. This concept of a moral zeitgeist becomes the central focus of the writings of Dawkins and Nietzsche as they attempt to illustrate the relationship between religion and morality. In God Delusion, Dawkins focuses on the changing moral zeitgeist, noting how humanity's mentality has changed due to time, and that humanity must come up with a new set of 10 commandments, because the ways of the past no longer work. in the present. Nietzsche, however, focuses only on the origin of the zeitgeist and how it came to challenge humanity to be greater. In this essay, I will illustrate the unique perspectives presented by Dawkins and Nietzsche on the idea that religion is one of the great sources of morality in human cultures. “In every society there exists a somewhat mysterious consensus, which changes over the decades, and for which it is not pretentious to use the German word Zeitgeists (spirit of the times)” (Dawkins, the God Delusion, p. 301). Dawkins's story of the modern moral mind is very different from that of biblical times, noting that "the fact is that almost all of us have evolved, and to a great extent, since biblical times" (Dawkins, the God Delusion, p. 300). ) and Dawkins notes that this Zeitgeist is different because, over time, we develop more and more polite circles. As Dawkins made clear, everything comes from, or happens because of, evolution; humans want to have good morals to establish a good reputation in order to spread their genes. In God Delusion, Dawkins focuses on the evolution of ...... middle of paper ......sters. He notes how Christians often blame God by attributing these events to God's wrath when in reality it can be explained by science. He then goes on to illustrate how the commandments are only specific to the person the book is written for, ultimately making our morals irrelevant to us, because they were only written for a specific person. This is similar to Nietzsche as he explains how the eagles do not treat the sheep right and how the Jews treated others because Jesus in the crowd was Jewish. Both authors say that religion is not a help, it is an excuse. If you are looking for morals, you should not go to the Bible or religion because you will not find good morals there. If humanity chooses to return to the Bible for meaning and morality, then a slave morality will be created and humanity will forever be condemned as passive, boring individuals...