Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The allegation that Hitler was, (as one post stated, an” Evangelical Christian”) is just to rich. There are any number of sites that use quotes from Hitler to prove he was a Christian. And then we also have numerous other sites that use quotes to prove otherwise.

I can list a litany of both. But here are a few points to consider from the afore mentioned list.

In Hitler's Table Talk, a revealing collection of the Fuhrer's private opinions, assembled by a close aide during the war years, shows Hitler to be rabidly anti-religious. He called Christianity one of the great "scourges" of history, and said of the Germans, "Let's be the only people who are immunized against this disease." He promised that "through the peasantry we shall be able to destroy Christianity." In fact, he blamed the Jews for inventing Christianity. He also condemned Christianity for its opposition to evolution.

Hitler reserved special scorn for the Christian values of equality and compassion, which he identified with weakness. Hitler's leading advisers like Goebbels, Himmler, Heydrich and Bormann were atheists who hated religion and sought to eradicate its influence in Germany.

Hitler himself says in Mein Kampf that his public statements should be understood as propaganda that bears no relation to the truth but is designed to sway the masses.

In saying Hitler was a Christian, it’s for certainty he had no concern for his fellow Christians, as he slaugthered them enmass as well. Though there is no way of being positive of the exact number of Christians murdered by the Nazis, there is much speculation. It is estimated that over 660,000 Catholics were killed and approximately 3 million Christians total. The Scripture says the way to know you’ve passed from death unto life, is that you love the brethren. And by their fruits you shall know them. So I believe his actions certainly, and defiantly exclude him from being considered a “believing” Christian.

Adolf Hitler - Christian, Atheist, or Neither?
As one researcher found on the pro or con of Hitler’s Christianity… In conclusion, I think that Hitler was not an atheist, but he was not a Christian either. While he was materialist and rationalist in a lot of things, he also talked a lot about "Providence", or "Nature", as a sort of mystical force of fate, and he saw himself as somehow destined for victory even when the war was going badly for him, simply because of the purity of his purpose, his strength of will, and his feeling of destiny. I have even read that he believed in reincarnation. To me, some of his quotes and writings make it sound like he worshipped the German national identity; some make it seem like instead of God he worshipped or idealised or divinised Providence / Nature / Fate, with his glorious destiny assured no matter what; and in some ways it seems to me like he worshipped himself.

Finally, two last points. The first is not very compelling, but I found it interesting. The first time I found Hitler's Mein Kampf on-line was at a White Supremacy hate site whose homepage had a litany of Hitler's anti-Christian quotes.

The second point is that even the atheist websites highlights the difference between Hitler's public speeches before he came to power, and his attitude after 1935 when he saw Christianity as a threat to Nazi domination. http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mischedj/ca_hitler.html
Much of Hitler’s inspiration came from Nietzsche, an avowed atheist. And I have to point out the strong influence of an avowed militant atheist like Nietzsche had on Hitler’s thought process, “and” his actions.’ Hitler may not have been an avowed posturing atheists, but the influence of an avowed militant adherent to atheism and “REASON” (Nietzsche) certainly did show itself in his murderous actions of Evolution and Darwinism, in “Survival of the Fittest.” Hitler’s mouthing of Christian platitudes, certainly did not show, in his actions, and deeds, a true belief in Christ’s teachings. It was Far, Far from it.

"Hitler often visited the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and published his veneration for the philosopher by posing for photographs of himself staring in rapture at the bust of the great man."


Thus, regardless of what he hoped for, Nietzsche offered grounds for the reprehensible Nazi ideology of a superior race exercising its will to power as it saw fit. Hitler was living out what Nietzsche had envisioned, trying to prove himself to be the Übermensch and the precursor of the Master race. He despised weakness as much as Nietzsche did and wanted to "transvalue" the current social values into something that supported the aggressive instinct. He wanted to become, as Nietzsche called it, a "lord of the earth."


http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/TCEH/Nietzsche.html


http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/nietzsche_crimes/7.html


And as I've already posted...

Sitting in a church, spouting Christian platitudes occasionally, does not make one a Christian, any more than sitting in your garage beeping like a car horn, makes one a car.

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