Restraining_Natural_Instincts

Restraining Natural Instincts Restraining Natural Instincts In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche puts a substantial amount of emphasis on the body rather than the mind. In bringing out his points, many questions can be raised on the restrictions religion puts on natural bodily instincts. According to Nietzsche, the ideals and expectations that religion demands in attempt to improve humanity are absurd. “To call the taming of an animal its’ improvement sounds almost like a joke to our ears.”(p.38) As humans, we sometimes disregard the fact that we are animals because of our ability to think abstractly. However, a human is as much of an animal as a lion regardless of that advantage or disadvantage. Likewise, a lion would never hold back its hunger, aggressiveness, or any other instinctive behavior. That behavior is crucial to its survival. Still, overwhelmingly, religion puts boundaries on such instincts in humans. For example, Muslims hold back hunger by fasting, just as Christians suppress sexuality, and Buddhists embrace non-aggressive behavior. These restrictions are meant to create peace and civility between peoples and therefore improve humankind. It is rather ironic then that religion has been the basis for many hostilities dating from the crusades nietzsche, religion, life, instincts, shouldn’t, restrictions, rejects, rather, puts, out, natural, mind, humans, body, behavior, ideal, way, values, set, saying, reason, points, much, morality, might, lion, instinctive, individual, improve, idea, hunger, humanity, human, hold