> didn't use religious ideals it's not that exactly. it's that his attempt to cope with no intrinsic meaning lead to the same behavior that he criticized the religious institutions with. by not deferring to a higher authority, he made himself and encouraged others to be their own authority. benign on the surface but fundamentally the same. the religious, in his view, invented that authority and followed it under a collective delusion. that's exactly what he's proposing. make it up. it's not worded that way, not presented in that way, but mechanically and fundamentally speaking is the same.  it's like trying to argue what is objectively true when everyone is forced to observe and conclude, ultimately, subjectively -- no matter how hard we try to be otherwise.  i think on some level he was aware of that and it ate away at him. also syphilis or whatever it was he had didn't help.
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