“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

One of the most important messages lawyer and philosopher Ernesto ‘Ernie’ Dayot reiterated following his wife’s passing in 2013 was “death doesn’t scare me at all!”
“When we have accepted that there is a higher God, nothing can scare us—not even death,” he elaborated. “We will soon realize nothing is permanent here on earth.”
While an avid objectivist, he agreed that there are things unrelated to the brain or intelligence. He considered it “an expression of the spirit inside us.”
Dayot also believed humanity lies in our ability to experience many different facets of life; a sense of justice, the ability to love, the ability to understand free will and the responsibility that comes with it, an appreciation for beauty, and the development art and culture. If there is life after death, there is more responsibility to oneself and others.
Dayot was cremated last week and his remains were brought to his hometown of Dingle, Iloilo.

Life after death
The present and one’s way of life is closely connected to the continued existence of life after death, which offers reason to fear the consequences of one’s actions as it is believed there may be suffering even after death.
When Friedrich Nietzsche wrote “God is dead,” Dayot explained the German philosopher did not mean it literally.
Author Michael Macrone explained: “Shakespeare did not say ‘To be, or not to be’ –he wrote it, but Hamlet says it. Neither did Nietzsche say ‘God is dead;’ a ‘madman’ does. While it is true that Nietzsche himself went mad at 45, there is still a difference between life and literature, even when the latter is called philosophy.”
It does not suggest non-believers are not real nor does it claim God does not exist. To say “God is dead” means He must have been alive at some point; however, it present a paradox as, since God is an eternal being, he can never die. A madman does not speak of the believer’s God but rather what God represented and meant for culture. Such a God is a “shared belief” in God, which dwindled throughout 19th century Europe.
“Where once God stood—at the center of knowledge and meaning—there is now a void,” Macrone explained. “Science and philosophy alike treat God as irrelevant and, once again, man has become the measure of all things.”
Westerners have “killed” the God of their ancestors by turning more towards nature and away from the supernatural. The believers of Nietzsche’s tale think seeking God is “funny” and only madmen realize the terrible gravity of God’s death.
“Not that he laments it, in fact, he calls it a ‘great deed;’ but a deed likely too great for us, the murderers, to bear,” added Macrone.
Religions such as Christianity, despite the teachings of Jesus, perpetuate intolerance and conformity, which Nietzsche found repugnant.
Whatever is old, habitual, normative, or dogmatic, he thought was contrary to life and to dignity; it manifests what he called a “slave mentality.”

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Alex P. Vidal, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo./WDJ