Naphta’s view of human life is fundamentally different from Settembrini’s because of his religious beliefs. He will always place the spiritual and pure realm of God above the physical and sinful realm of mortals. Next to the pursuit of eternal salvation, then, all human pursuits—even noble pursuits of liberty and happiness—are meaningless and unimportant. Naphta's criticism of the nation state’s inherent bias is fair enough, but, once more, his claim that God alone possesses pure, unbiased knowledge only works if one accepts the existence of God. Though his arguments sound intellectually rigorous on the surface, their reliance on faith renders them irrational and illogical. What’s more, he appeals to religion to conceal his underlying nihilism.