Hitler Really Wasn't an Atheist
Hitler Really Wasn't an Atheist
by Martin Phipps
by Martin Phipps
In his article "Response to 'Hitler Was Not an Atheist'", Cliff Soon quotes Ernst Haeckel as saying that Christianity
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" ... makes no distinction of race or of color; it seeks to break down all racial barriers. In this respect the hand of Christianity is against that of Nature, for are not the races of mankind the evolutionary harvest which Nature has toiled through long ages to produce? May we not say, then, that Christianity is anti-evolutionary in its aim?"
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But Hitler was not Haeckel. There's a difference between quoting Hitler and quoting a random German scientist. Would it have made sense to, instead, use a quote from Martin Luther to "show" how much Hitler was devoted to Christ? No. It only makes sense to quote Hitler himself or the people with whom he worked (see http://www.nobeliefs.com/henchmen.htm ). In the quote provided by Soon (for which he provided no reference) Hitler stated that "The final state must be in St. Peter's Chair" which, to me, suggests strongly that rather than being an atheist who wanted to rid the world of religion, he simply wanted the state in control. Hitler made no qualms about this desire while in power: he spoke of "positive Christianity" (the implication being that Christianity as currently practiced was negative) and the desire to create a "German Reich Church". Do these sound like the ambitions of an atheist? The Catholic church, in defense of a strong leader who would oppose atheist Russia, encouraged this ambition.
John Patrick Michael Murphy's claim that the Pope "contracted with Hitler and his fascist friends Franco and Mussolini, giving them veto power over whom the pope could appoint as a bishop in Germany, Spain, and Italy" confirms this. (For more details see http://www.nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm.) While Hitler was in power Pope Pius XII sent him a greeting every year on his birthday until the day he died... and when Hitler died the Pope staged a memorial for him! The Jesuit Michael Serafin wrote:
John Patrick Michael Murphy's claim that the Pope "contracted with Hitler and his fascist friends Franco and Mussolini, giving them veto power over whom the pope could appoint as a bishop in Germany, Spain, and Italy" confirms this. (For more details see http://www.nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm.) While Hitler was in power Pope Pius XII sent him a greeting every year on his birthday until the day he died... and when Hitler died the Pope staged a memorial for him! The Jesuit Michael Serafin wrote:
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"It cannot be denied that [Pope] Pius XII's closest advisors for some time regarded Hitler's armored divisions as the right hand of God." (Friedrich Heer, God's First Love (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1967), p. 320, citing Lewy, pp. 249-250; see also Falconi, Carlo, Il silenzio di Pio XII (Milan) 1965.)
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And Hitler thought of himself in the same way. Historian Guenter Lewy wrote:
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"On 26 April 1933 Hitler had a conversation with Bishop Berning and Monsignor Steinmann [the Catholic leadership in Germany]. The subject was the common fight against liberalism, Socialism and Bolshevism, discussed in the friendliest terms. In the course of the conversation Hitler said that he was only doing to the Jews what the church had done to them over the past fifteen hundred years. The prelates did not contradict him." (Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany (London and New York) 1964, p. 50ff.)
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Note that these are quotes from published books and not opinions expressed on the web, unlike Cliff Soon's quotes from www.answersingenesis.org. A lot of Christians disregard the Hitler's religious leanings as evidenced in Mein Kampf (see http://www.nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm ) or in his campaign speeches (see http://www.nobeliefs.com/speeches.htm) or in photographs (see http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm ) by saying that this was all Nazi propaganda, that Hitler just wrote these things and made these speeches and staged these public appearances in order to make the German public think he was a Christian. Hitler's own private notes, however, demonstrated his Christianity and showed that Hitler's case for the supremacy of the Aryan came from there (see http://www.nobeliefs.com/HitlerBible.htm ).
Furthermore, Hitler made a point of having a copy of Mein Kampf sent to every church and school after he had already come to power. This implies strongly to me that Mein Kampf was not to Hitler simply a book of propaganda but a book that, to the very word, he believed in and continued to believe in.
In any case, the question isn't whether or not Hitler believed in God or evolution. He clearly believed in both, at one time calling the Jews "ungodly wretches" (in Table Talk) and at another time implying that they were "monstrosities halfway between man and ape" (in Mein Kampf).) The question is what inspired him, personally, to hate Jews, religion or evolution. By Hitler's own admission, it was religion that inspired him. He wrote in Mein Kampf that "by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord". You challenged Cliff to come up with a similar quote in which Hitler claimed to be doing Darwin's work and he provided the following:
Furthermore, Hitler made a point of having a copy of Mein Kampf sent to every church and school after he had already come to power. This implies strongly to me that Mein Kampf was not to Hitler simply a book of propaganda but a book that, to the very word, he believed in and continued to believe in.
In any case, the question isn't whether or not Hitler believed in God or evolution. He clearly believed in both, at one time calling the Jews "ungodly wretches" (in Table Talk) and at another time implying that they were "monstrosities halfway between man and ape" (in Mein Kampf).) The question is what inspired him, personally, to hate Jews, religion or evolution. By Hitler's own admission, it was religion that inspired him. He wrote in Mein Kampf that "by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord". You challenged Cliff to come up with a similar quote in which Hitler claimed to be doing Darwin's work and he provided the following:
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"The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature's efforts 'to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile' (Mein Kampf)."
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Note, however, that only the latter part "to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile" is being quoted from Mein Kampf. He doesn't provide a source for the rest of the quote and the actual quote of Hitler is being taken out of context.
In any case, Darwin did not speak of "higher stages" of evolution. This is coming from Hitler's own mind. Darwin's theory of natural selection talks of the "survival of the fittest" but it defines "the fittest" as those who survive. It doesn't claim that those who survive are superior to those who died, only that some species survive and some don't. We all agree that some species in nature have become extinct. Where is there a reasonable objection to Darwin's theory?
Finally, to the claim that there is no morality without religion, I point both you and Cliff to Robert Wright's The Moral Animal : Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology (Random House, 1994) in which Wright claims that morality is actually a result of social evolution.
The basic argument is that cultures that are not moral will not survive, presumably because moral people help others while immoral people might go so far as to kill them. This is similar to the arguments that were posted on the "freethinkers" forum, namely that "serial killers can't function normally in society", an argument which Cliff rejected outright. Sure enough, Hitler himself died without having any children. What, exactly, is the objection to this argument?
(As an aside, I have to ask if religious people themselves are truly moral. This is discussed at length at http://www.creationtheory.org. Does Cliff truly believe that morality came from God and that the Indians and the Chinese, for example, were immoral people? Were Buddha and Confucius immoral in his eyes?)
I would go so far as to say that Hitler's and Darwin's views concerning race were diametrically opposite. After all, consider that Darwin was claiming that all of mankind had descended from apes whereas Hitler claimed that Aryans were "images of the Lord" (Mein Kampf). The seeds of Hitler's racism can be found in Genesis 24-27:
In any case, Darwin did not speak of "higher stages" of evolution. This is coming from Hitler's own mind. Darwin's theory of natural selection talks of the "survival of the fittest" but it defines "the fittest" as those who survive. It doesn't claim that those who survive are superior to those who died, only that some species survive and some don't. We all agree that some species in nature have become extinct. Where is there a reasonable objection to Darwin's theory?
Finally, to the claim that there is no morality without religion, I point both you and Cliff to Robert Wright's The Moral Animal : Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology (Random House, 1994) in which Wright claims that morality is actually a result of social evolution.
The basic argument is that cultures that are not moral will not survive, presumably because moral people help others while immoral people might go so far as to kill them. This is similar to the arguments that were posted on the "freethinkers" forum, namely that "serial killers can't function normally in society", an argument which Cliff rejected outright. Sure enough, Hitler himself died without having any children. What, exactly, is the objection to this argument?
(As an aside, I have to ask if religious people themselves are truly moral. This is discussed at length at http://www.creationtheory.org. Does Cliff truly believe that morality came from God and that the Indians and the Chinese, for example, were immoral people? Were Buddha and Confucius immoral in his eyes?)
I would go so far as to say that Hitler's and Darwin's views concerning race were diametrically opposite. After all, consider that Darwin was claiming that all of mankind had descended from apes whereas Hitler claimed that Aryans were "images of the Lord" (Mein Kampf). The seeds of Hitler's racism can be found in Genesis 24-27:
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"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
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To Hitler, Aryans were the image of God and other races, including the "Jewish race" were not images of God and hence the Germans were entitled to "dominion... over every creeping thing". Furthermore, Hitler took the example of the God of the Old Testament, the God which destroyed mankind in a worldwide flood, destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorra and ordered the stoning and slaughter of people who did not obey his laws, when he enacted his final solution against the Jewish people.
But don't take my word for it. Consider Hitler's own words.
But don't take my word for it. Consider Hitler's own words.
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"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people."
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942) Martin Phipps, October 18th, 2004 |
