by zound 16 Replies latest jw friends
I've heard that Hitler did what he did in the name of atheism from various theists - or at least that he WAS an atheist. I wasn't sure about it, but found this quote today. Thoughts?
"We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.
-- Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on October 24, 1933 "
The only thing this worshipped god named Hitler acknowledged to be higher than himself was
"Die Vorsehung"
Destiny.
dont know about him personally, but the whole Nazi Trauma was an intense religious experience. including
the promise of a 1000 year rule.
Htler was raised Catholic. I'm not sure if he followed his inherited faith,but used his connections with the church to his advantage. He was excommunicated in 1965,which is kind of beside the point.
But,whatever he was,he was evil. And there are good and bad atheists,as there are good and bad Christians. And also,believe it or not,good and bad Jehovah's Witnesses,lol.
I really don't understand where this atheists vs. Christians thing is coming from,not saying that is your intention with this post. But,I see it all over this board.
You heard incorrectly. Reports are that he personally was a skeptic but used religion to further his desires as needed.
He was excommunicated in 1965,which is kind of beside the point.
Um, yeah considering that he died in 1945.
Catholic up bringing.
Hitler was not atheist. He believed in God, but not particular of the Christianity. He saw Christian God as a Jewish imagination. He grew up Catholic and believed in Providence. He said in 1938: " It is charged against me that I am against property, that I am an atheist. Both charges are false.”
Any indication that he was atheist is fabrication in postwar era that could not imagine a person like A.H. believing in higher being. Generally umbiased studies of his regime and his personality came with a conclusion that he was a deist.
"We demand freedom for all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or conflict with the customs and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The party as such represents the standpoint of a positive Christianity, without owing itself to a particular confession...."
- Article 20 of the program of the German Workers' Party (later named the National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP)
I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.
- Adolf Hitler, to General Gerhard Engel, 1941
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. ...Today, 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. ...
- Adolf Hitler, speech on April 12, 1922
I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf , Vol. 1 Chapter 2
Even today I am not ashamed to say that, overpowered by stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time.
- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf , Vol. 1 Chapter 5
Stalin was an atheist however and he was arguably as big a monster as Hitler.
Belief or lack of belief in a deity is not an indicator of morality.
We miss you Hitch....
