After Buddha was dead,
his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave - a tremendous, gruesome shadow. God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. -And we- we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.
from Nietzsche's The Gay Science, s.108, Walter Kaufmann transl.
This quote is about religion Buddha and God and the significance of their lives that even after their deaths they were still significant. The fact that he describes this as shadows shows that they are not important today or at least shouldn't be important. They were just two beings but this also shows that people need to believe in something, have some kind of faith, of hope that will liberate them from their suffering I believe people still have faith for a reason.
It applies today because there is always this debate that religions are obsolete that they no longer serve a purpose that they are unimportant but if there are still people having faith I say let them be. It is none of my business to impose myself on others.
The part that says that God is death is very cold and causes a deep impression I remember the first time I read that quote and I still remember until today how I felt about it. Just to think or say that the almighty and inmortal God could be like us and just dissappear be a mortal too causes me an emptiness in my stomach that is hard to describe. We are always holding unto something and God is one of those beings that we are always relying on instead of ourselves I wonder for how long more will he be death.
