Intestinal Torment - Religious Ambivalence in the German Soul (and gut), From Luther to Hitler - Part 1
A Nietzschean (and Schopenhauer) Inspired Hypothesis
**The following is (part 1) of a new historical, psychological, and physiological hypothesis. I put it forward for your consideration as a new idea that I think makes sense of some things. Please read with an open mind.**
Physiological Health Question:
I propose a preliminary hypothesis/question for your consideration, dear reader. I ask of you that you consider it carefully, although it will most likely sound quite odd to you at first:
Could indigestion, and all sorts of gastro intestinal issues contribute to one’s own philosophical, religious, and political outlook?
And more specifically, could it work in the reverse? ie: Could being torn between religious viewpoints and values have dire effects on one’s own physical health?
Specifically, could religious ambivalence and ambivalence over the values that often accompany those religions, cause health problems? Specifically gastro-intestinal issues?
Again, this may sound like a very strange question to ask, but I ask the reader to bear with me, and consider the following questions also.
Religious/Biblical Question:
Once you have understood and considered the above physiological question, I then propose a religious/philosophical question for your consideration, which is:
In theory, from the perspective of the Christian God in the Bible, could it ever be possible that, under some circumstances, He actually would want someone to be against his Christ of the Bible?
To properly consider this question, I would like you consider a verse from the book of Revelation:
“I wish you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm I will vomit you out of my mouth.” (3:15)
Dear reader, have you ever really thought deeply about this verse before? Isn’t it interesting what Yahweh/Jesus is saying here?
Is he not basically saying the following:
“I would prefer that you were outright anti-Christian (or not Christian at all), rather than just lukewarm, pretending to follow Christ, wearing the pretense.”
In other words, if you’re not going to consciously and boldly be a follower of Jesus (with all the beliefs and values that come along with that), isn’t Yahweh saying here that he would rather you be outright anti-Christian instead? (or at the very least, not Christian at all in your pretenses and actions).
Because why else would the language of extreme temperatures be used here in this Bible passage? Do they not imply opposite states of mind? And have you really considered the significance of Jesus/Yahweh saying he actually would WANT you to be one or the other?
Health Benefits to (Overtly) Picking a (Religious) Side (either or)?
Then, once you have considered the above verse and my question along with it, I propose a question about physical health and physiology:
Could following the spiritual advice of Revelation 3:15 (in either direction, “hot or cold”) have positive health effects for you?
As I have discussed in other articles, in historical context, following Jesus was so much more than just what one person personally believed. Rather, it was taking on a system of values (ie: “Love your enemy”) that most of the world at that time would have considered abhorrent, as I discussed in this article here:
Indeed, wars are often fought over the question and problem of values, and not always just over resources, land, and wounded egos.
Although most modern atheists and believers argue over specific beliefs and what actually happened in the past (and whether or not miracles can literally happen, etc), the deeper crux of historic religious difference lies in the domain of values, and not in belief, which I discuss here:
Nietzsche, in contrast with most other modern atheists, didn’t just disbelieve in Christian dogma. He was against Christian values and morality as well, and he could see how they stood in sharp contrast with the ancient world.
So much so, that long before the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, Nietzsche wrote the following:
Not just Nietzsche, but even Schopenhauer (that Nietzsche mentions in the above quote) had noticed something about the Germans… that deep within themselves, they had dispositions towards being non-Christian, probably far more than any other nation (as far as he had seen).
And Nietzsche very much agreed with this assessment, and thus wanted the Germans to learn to have the courage of their convictions and be honest about what they really wanted at bottom.
Of course though, by the time of the third Reich, it would indeed be “too late” to recognize this.
As a young man, I remember historically ignorant atheists simplistically claiming that the third Reich was a Christian product, because Hitler was known publicly to say things like:
“The party stands for positive Christianity!”
Although I had a sense that it was simplistic to quote Hitler this way, I couldn’t yet at that time put a finger on exactly why.
But as historians like Tom Holland (in his magnum opus book, “Dominion”) have helpfully pointed out (and no doubt Nietzsche would have agreed), this was not a genuine support of Christianity, but rather a cowardly and pandering gutting of it.
Although personally trying to be anti-Christian himself (Hitler regretted the predominance of Christianity in Germany in his private correspondence; he called it a “flabby religion”), he was ultimately still a politician, and he couldn’t deny the prevalence of Christianity (Protestantism particularly) in his own country, and so he felt that he had to pander to Christianity among his people, and that is why he said things publicly like: “The Party stands for positive Christianity” (which in practise, during the reign of the Third Reich, meant: “Yes, you can be ‘Christian’, but as long as that means you support Nazi ideology”).
Germans Hadn’t Really WANTED to be Christians
Nietzsche though (a generation before Hitler) had been a much more openly honest anti-Christian, and being a German himself (at least as far the records show as far as we know—despite what he himself claimed), would have felt within himself that anti-Christian disposition. And not feeling the need to tell people what they wanted to hear (he had no political conflicts of interest as someone who was non-political), Nietzsche wrote openly and honestly about his perspective on history, and how the Christian value system had effected the German people in particular (and is also why he wrote the book, “The Anti-Christ”).
And Nietzsche believed that the German people had been ILL-SUITED to Christianity (much moreso than other races/groups of people), and that, although they had grown quite adjusted to the pretense of saying that they wanted to be Christians… really, at bottom, they didn’t believe in it. According to Nietzsche, at the bottom of their souls, they regretted being Christians (just as Schopenhauer had noticed about the Germans also), and just simply felt an obligation to it because they had been that way for so long.
But at the same time, they felt stuck, and they couldn’t get rid of it. And they couldn’t (were afraid to) be honest with themselves about how they really felt.
This would be why then, at the time of the third Reich, some older German women were known to have a picture of both Jesus and Hitler on their wall, side by side. This is a very good illustration of the antagonism and torment in the German soul. Deep down, they knew they didn’t really like Christianity, but they felt a loyalty to it because they had been Christians for hundreds (thousands?) of years.
And so, unable to shake off the Christianity they didn’t really believe in, they attempted to blend the two (Christianity and Fascism), even though of course they were clearly ideologically opposed.
When Hitler pandered to Christianity, he was also trying to publicly respect the Germans by acknowledging the long history of Christianity (particularly that went back to Luther, and famously in particular; Luther’s Bible, which was an iconic thing in German culture). And although ultimately politically shrewd (and cowardly) on Hitler’s part, he was trying to acknowledge an aspect of who the Germans had become in the previous ages of Christian influence.
And so it is here then that I would like to propose a hypothesis for the reader:
If Nietzsche was indeed right about the Germans not really believing in Christianity at bottom—but also being unable to get rid of it from their souls and their culture—is it possible that this ambivalence and torment has led to all manner of problems in the German soul, which has ultimately also led to physical ailments?
From Nietzsche’s historical perspective, have the Germans particularly suffered from a “soul sickness”, which has then (at least in part) led to a physical sickness that has been with the Germans for (at least) hundreds of years?
And after hundreds of years of this sickness, could the rise of the third Reich be seen as an attempt (in exasperation) to finally forever throw off this sickness?
Bad Gas and Gut Pain - From Luther to Hitler
As (more honest) science is revealing, your gut health is really important. And particularly, your gut microbiome. And as I’ve discussed in another article, modern “food” is terrible for your health for many reasons. But one of the biggest reasons is how it throws off the natural balance of your gut microbiome (of which, chemicals like glyphosate/“round-up” is largely to blame):
Of Vegetable Oils and Instant Pimples (and other reasons why society cannot continue on like this)
But long before the advent of modern (terrible) pseudo-food, people still sometimes struggled terribly with their health (for a myriad of reasons), and gut issues have obviously been among these struggles.
But historically speaking, among the Germans, I have noticed some major German figures who have all suffered terribly with their gut health, and, as far as I can tell, with their previous religion also.
LUTHER - MARX - HITLER
Out of all the Germans who have ever lived, these three men are indisputably among the most politically influential of them all. And all of them had severe gut health issues.
Now, of course, this could simply be a coincidence. But in light of what Nietzsche had said just prior to the rise of the third Reich, and how it seems to dovetail so neatly into aspects of both Luther and Marx also, I think you will find this to be a powerful and explanatory thesis.
Ohhhh, a few thoughts.
(1) Gastrointestinal issues are a common symptom of childhood stress, dysfunction, and attachment issues. Modern-day Germany was ground zero for what Alice Miller called "poisonous pedagogies", or toxic parenting ideas spread in parenting books, which, she argues, contributed to Germans becoming more narcissistic and vulnerable to totalitarian, paving the way for Nazi Germany.
Some history here: https://thecassandracomplex.substack.com/p/the-dangers-of-reading-too-much-part-df8
(2) Another hypothesis, more inspired by Kabbalah than Christianity ... our consciousness is a product of our gut microbiome; all living creatures on earth (plants, animals, humans, fungi) make up the gut microbiome of the earth, and thus a part of God's consciousness. (Think fractally). When our relationship to "Spirit" (God/Elohim) is disrupted, so is our relationship to our gut microbiome. As above, so below.
(3) Thus, eating processed nutrient-devoid "dead" food takes us further away from God. Consumption of refined sugar would do this, and the affluent descendants of the Germanic tribes (i.e. the ruling classes of Northern and Western Europe) were the first to consume refined sugar in significant amount, as it was originally a luxury item.
See: https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/autism-and-the-upper-crust/
(4) Multiple factors, including "poisonous pedagogical" parenting, led Germans (Germanics) to become more left hemisphere dominant and to have more dysfunctional right hemispheres (i.e. more individualistic, more mechanistic, more narcissistic, more reductionistic, and less holistic, less connected to their own bodies, to nature, to other people, and to spirituality). This led Germans to have unhealthy interpersonal relationships, unhealthy relationships to their own bodies (including disrupted gut), and an unhealthy relationship to both nature and to God.
Interesting theory! Along with the conflicting ideologies of Christian pacifism and Prussian militarism, too much knockwurst would make for a dyspeptic situation!