"God is dead" is a metaphor used by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, appearing in The Gay Science (1882) and Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–85). Nietzsche does not claim that a supernatural being has perished, nor does he offer an argument for atheism as a doctrine. Rather, the phrase is a diagnostic claim about the condition of Western civilisation. Nietzsche used "God" as a symbol representing Christian morality and its metaphysical worldview that, for centuries, provided Europe with its foundation for morality, meaning, and value.