"Atheism, true 'existential' atheism burning with hatred of a seemingly unjust or unmerciful God, is a spiritual state; it is a real attempt to grapple with the true God.… Nietzsche, in calling himself Antichrist, proved thereby his intense hunger for Christ." - Seraphim Rose
See the birth of tragedy by Nietzsche for the Apollonian aesthetics inherent to Christianity and the Dionysian alternative. Ignore the Wagner worship if you choose to read it.
This aesthetic of the western world included the worship and subservience the weak and unworthy and the suppression of self for the sake of immaterial and unworthy false idols. Nietzsche valued beauty, strength, and most of all, truth.
When Zarathustra declared that God was dead he wasn't making a literal statement, he was pointing out the truth of what had never existed. No god exists, no god has ever existed, all the deities of various religions have never truly existed unto themselves.However, a god exists within the hearts of men so long as they devote themselves truly to casting aside their egos in the service of the ideal of that deity.God was dead because he was dead in the hearts of all supposedly Christian men. Zarathustra saw this and spoke of it.
Nietzsche had no more thirst for the christian 'christ' than he did for the mirage of an oasis in a desert. To say otherwise is wishful thinking and an attempt to push your cognitive dissonance and religious insecurity on famously brilliant (but dead) people.
You can see similar behaviors with Fundamentalist Christians defaming Charles Darwin and other related scientific figures.
They are the actions of petulant and frightened children.
Not thinking adults.
