DEATH VERSUS NON-EXISTENCE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ONTOLOGICAL STATUS OF GOD IN NIETZSCHE AND SARTRE

Abstract
This paper examines in a comparative manner the death of God in Friedrich Nietzsche and the non-existence of God in Jean-Paul Sartre. As an undertone, it attempts to address man’s self-denials, alienation and failure to assert his freedom and independence which was occasioned by his over-reliance on the God-thesis; a situation where every human problem is being interpreted in terms of a divine determinist who had predestined every human experience. Nietzsche found in the Athenian and German cultures the Dionysian spirit required to restore the freedom of Dasein, while Sartre adopted the French revolutionary consciousness and spirit of freedom to address this problem. The death of God in Nietzsche means the death of belief in the God-thesis, the rejection of determinism or fixed principles and the birth of, freedom or superman. On the other hand, Sartre’s non-existence of God is a demonstration of the absolute freedom of for-itself and the absence of a creative God who creates essences. Our analysis shows that though there are some cosmetic and structural differences in terms of terminology and logical structure of their arguments, the content and intent of their works as it relates to the subject of discourse are essentially the same; hence they are grouped together as atheistic existentialists. Our work adopts the content cum textual- analytic methods of study.