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The ideas first presented by Darwin and later extrapolated to include human society and ethics by Spencer, took a distinctly anti-religious tone in the writings of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Infamous for his decree that "God is dead," and that religion is no longer useful, Nietzsche also questioned established morality. He proposed that morality is determined by each individual; there is no absolute. Not only did his work attack religion and morality, but it also presented the idea of a "ubermensch," or the "superman:".
I want to teach men the sense of their existence, which is the Superman, the out of the dark cloud man. .
Nietzsche's idea of the "ubermensch" gave rise to a number of notions concerning the superiority of certain races over others and strengthened the argument for eugenics, where society or the government should intervene to assure the procreation of the strong in order to produce the "superman." Although these ideas were rather extreme, they did foster a sense of nationalism based on the idea of the superiority of a race. This is especially true concerning the alleged superiority of the Aryan race.
Sigmund Freud, a contemporary of Nietzsche, contributed to the secularization of human nature through his work in psychology. Freud developed a theory of psychoanalysis in which the individual is governed by the conflict between the subconscious, base desires of the "id" and the socially imposed morality of the "superego." This conflict is mediated by the "ego," which constitutes the largest part of the conscious human mind. Through his work, Freud internalized the human struggle, taking it out of the realm of the supernatural and placing the responsibility of Man's actions on his own experiences:.
Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual internal impulses. .
As the nineteenth century came to a close, Europe had been exposed to new ideas, made credible through scientific evidence, and began to think differently about themselves and about their nations.
