religion, all notions of worship, all history, all natural science, all worldly experience, all knowledge, all politics, all psychology, all books, all art--his "wisdom" is precisely a _pure ignorance_[11] of all such things. He has never heard of _culture_; he doesn't have to make war on it--he doesn't even deny it.... The same thing may be said of the _state_, of the whole bourgeoise social order, of labour, of war--he has no ground for denying "the world," for he knows nothing of the ecclesiastical concept of "the world".... _Denial_ is precisely the thing that is impossible to him.--In the same way he lacks argumentative capacity, and has no belief that an article of faith, a "truth," may be established by proofs (--_his_ proofs are inner "lights," subjective sensations of happiness and self-approval, simple "proofs of power"--). Such a doctrine _cannot_ contradict: it doesn't know that other doctrines exist, or _can_ exist, and is wholly incapable of imagining anything opposed to it.... If anything of the sort is ever encountered, it laments the "blindness" with sincere sympathy--for it alone has "light"--but it does not offer objections.... [6] The word _Semiotik_ is in the text, but it is probable that _Semantik_ is what Nietzsche had in mind. [7] One of the six great systems of Hindu philosophy. [8] The reputed founder of Taoism. [9] Nietzsche's name for one accepting his own philosophy. [10] That is, the strict letter of the law--the chief target of Jesus's early preaching. [11] A reference to the "pure ignorance" (_reine Thorheit_) of Parsifal. 33. In the whole psychology of the "Gospels" the concepts of guilt and punishment are lacking, and so is that of reward. "Sin," which means anything that puts a distance between God and man, is abolished--_this is precisely the "glad tidings."_ Eternal bliss is not merely promised, nor is it bound up with conditions: it is conceived as the _only_ reality--what remains consists merely of signs useful in speaking of it. The _results_ of such a point of view project themselves into a new _way of life_, the special evangelical way of life. It is not a "belief" that marks off the Christian; he is distinguished by a different mode of action; he acts _differently_. He offers no resistance, either by word or in his heart, to those who stand against him. He draws no distinction between strangers and countrymen, Jews and Gentiles ("neighbour," of course, means fellow-believer, Jew). He is angry with no one, and he despises no one. He neither appeals to the courts of justice nor heeds their mandates ("Swear not at all").[12] He never under any circumstances divorces his wife, even when he has proofs of her infidelity.--And under all of this is one principle; all of it arises from one instinct.-- [12] Matthew v, 34.