Morality & Politics
Atheist Morality: Was Hitler An Atheist?
Atheists
have been and continue to be the targets of a vicious, tireless smear
campaign. For example, after informally questioning my co-workers,
I realized to my chagrin that most of them think Adolf Hitler was
an atheist! Not one of them realized that Adolf Hitler had a
strict Catholic upbringing (of the type that supposedly produces
moral, virtuous people), or that he was an altar boy in his youth,
or that he once told General Gerhart Engel that "I am now
as before a Catholic and will always remain so". None of
them knew that his infamous "Mein Kampf" contains phrases
such as this: "Hence today I believe that I am acting in
accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending
myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the
Lord." (among many, many other things; see my page on
Hitler's Religion for
more). None of them knew that Nazi soldiers wore belt buckles
inscribed with "Gott mit uns" (God is with
us).
None of them knew that he made Christian school prayer mandatory for the 1930's German schoolchildren who grew up to be his dreaded SS, or that he publicly espoused "family values", which in his mind meant the condemnation of sexual "perversions" rather than the promotion of healthy marriages and parenting methods (rather reminiscent of the right-wing fundamentalist position today). None of them knew how much the German Christian Social movement resembled the modern right-wing Christian Fundamentalist movement. None of them knew that Hitler closely followed the anti-Semitic teachings of none other than Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, but this isn't surprising since they didn't know about Martin Luther's extreme anti-Semitism either, even though he wrote a book titled "On Jews and their Lies". Anti-atheists have noted that Hitler had minor disagreements with the Catholic church in Germany (but not with the church in Rome, with which he signed a Concordat in 1933, and which ordered the German church to fall in line), and they have attempted to twist these minor disagreements into a widespread misconception that he was an atheist, when nothing could be further from the truth.
A dissenting opinion on George Bush's ignorant notion that America is "one nation under God": "No man [should] be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor [should he] be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor ... otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief ... All men [should] be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and ... the same [should] in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."- Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.
Numerous arguments have been advanced in favour of the notion that Hitler was an atheist, despite the above information. Among them are:
- "While most of the concentration camp victims were Slavs (5 million) and Jews (6 million), Hitler killed Christians too, so he was obviously an atheist rather than a Christian, despite the misleading quotes you use": Nice try, but the medieval Catholics killed Christians for disobedience too; does this make them atheists? George W. Bush approved of the execution of many criminals who were Christian; does this make him an atheist? The question is not whether Hitler killed Christians; the question is why. When one considers that Hitler himself openly professed his Christian faith in both his writings and public speeches, and when one considers the specific actions for which Christians were arrested and killed, it's obvious that they were killed for actively opposing his government, not for being Christian. This is entirely different from his hatred of Jews (whose only crime was their religion and race) and Slavs (whose only crime was citizenship in a "Godless Bolshevik" state). As for the "misleading" quotes, it's one thing for an atheist to use the word "God" (I myself say things like "Thank God" even though I don't actually believe in God), but it's quite another for him to say "My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Saviour as a fighter," isn't it?
- "Hitler feuded with the German churches, so he obviously wasn't a Christian": As before, this proves nothing since Christians have feuded with one another for centuries. In Hitler's case, his only feud with the church was over the division of power between church and state. Note that he never contested the idea that church and religion belonged in government; he only insisted that he have control over the church, rather than the church having control over him.
- "Hitler believed in Norse mythology and various other forms of pagan mysticism, so he wasn't true Christian": Some of Hitler's underlings promoted a bastardized form of Christianity into which they mixed elements of Norse mythology, but no one in the Nazi regime ever spoke against Christianity, and Hitler publicly, loudly, repeatedly professed his Christian faith. The only way to view the Nazis as anything but a Christian state is to distort the facts beyond recognition; a pagan state would not pray to Jesus in its schoolrooms or enter into a concordat with the Catholic church! The tinge of Norse mysticism was only intended to create a particular Teutonic flavour of Christianity for the purpose of enhancing German racial pride, not to oppose or remove Christianity.
- "Hitler's actions were un-Christian, therefore he was not a true Christian, even if he claimed to be one": I suppose that would depend on how you define "true Christian". The medieval Catholics did everything Hitler did and more; does this mean they weren't "true Christians" either? One Catholic actually E-mailed me to argue that Hitler's actions were far worse than those of the Catholic church, as if gas chambers are so much worse than hacking a "witch"'s breasts off, violating her with heated metal instruments, and then tearing her limbs out of their sockets on the rack! I define a Christian as one who believes that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Others define it far more narrowly, so that they can exclude people like Hitler and Mengele. But if they are to use such a narrow definition, then they must be willing to admit that most self-professed "Christians" throughout history have not been truly Christian. Either way, they certainly couldn't call them atheists.
- "Christians outside Germany fought Hitler, so the Nazis
were enemies of Christianity": This argument confuses
nationalism with religion; Christian nations have been fighting
each other for centuries. In reality, Christians throughout the
world actively supported anti-semitism and even eugenics until
Hitler went so far that peoples' consciences were finally
pricked. America sterilized thousands of people with its own
eugenics program before the Nazis began theirs, and
Hitler's anti-Semite campaigns went almost unnoticed until they
went beyond "mere" segregation and confiscation of
property. In fact, in 1939, The Bishop of Hannover (among others)
signed the following statement: "The foundation of this
institute is based on the conviction that Jewish influence in all
areas of German life, including therefore that of the Church and
religon, must be brought to light and eliminated". Not
exactly a stunning condemnation of Hitler's anti-Semitism, is
it? But one doesn't need such quotes to make the point; one
need only think about it. Germany was one of the most
fiercely religious nations in Europe at the time Hitler rose to
power. If Hitler's anti-Semitism offended all Christian
principles at the time, then why did Germany's largely
Christian population give power to an outspoken anti-Semite?
Modern, moralistic Christianity is a reaction to Hitler; he
forced Christians to look at themselves in the mirror and change
their ways. That's good, but as the right-wing fundamentalists
are demonstrating every day, the spectre of "traditional"
Christianity always lurks beneath the surface, ready to return if
we give it a chance. It is the responsibility of not just
secular humanists, but also ethical Christians to
make sure this doesn't happen.
"Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity."- Sen. Joseph McCarthy, in a speech to the Ohio County Womens' Republican Club on February 9, 1950 (according to McCarthy, Abraham Lincoln was an enemy of the state, for saying that "My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them"). McCarthy was merely echoing Hitler's virulent anti-Bolshevism, but Christian historical revisionists have made it seem as if McCarthy's crusade was against the communist economic model rather than its atheism.
Indeed, if McCarthy was right about Christianity being a prerequisite for all Americans, then perhaps he could have explained the following sentiment from one of the "Founding Fathers": "The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."- Thomas Jefferson, letter to his nephew, Peter Carr (one can only wonder whether he would have classified McCarthy as a fool, or a hypocrite). - "The worldwide Christian community knew nothing of the horrors of the Holocaust until very late in the war, and that's why they didn't say anything. Once the news got out, the worldwide Christian community united against him.": This is just a variation upon the previous argument, and it's an historical whitewash. The worldwide Christian community at the time was strongly anti-semitic, and collectively gave little help to the Jews. The idea that they fought to save the Jews was invented after the war. The historical fact is that the Allies knew about the horrors of the concentration camp by the start of 1942, from spy networks and the eyewitness accounts of escapees, but no one cared. Anti-semitism was powerful and omnipresent: Canada turned away 3,000 Jewish child refugees at the border (all are believed to have eventually died at Auschwitz). America turned away 30,000 Jewish child refugees on its own, as did many of the European nations who were in a position to save countless Jews. An American rabbi had to use his own money to purchase full-page ads in newspapers to publicize the millions of deaths of the Holocaust because the newspapers were putting the information in tiny articles on the back pages. The "March of the Rabbis" had to be organized in Washington DC because the politicians considered the Jewish Holocaust to be a low-priority situation. Winston Churchill proposed bombing the gas chambers (or at the very least, the rail lines leading to the concentration camps) in order to stem the tide of death, but they were not deemed strategically important targets. FDR responded to the March of the Rabbis by ignoring them and sneaking out a back door. There was no worldwide Christian revulsion at the Holocaust until after the war, when movies and pictures finally awoke long-dormant consciences that had been unaffected by written reports.
- "Hitler drew his inspiration from Nietszche, an atheist, and not Christianity": Nice try, but Nietszche opposed anti-semitism and he was ashamed of his German heritage. Does that sound like Nazism to you? Hitler used Nietszche the same way most people use Nietszche today: only as a source of an occasional handy quote. I've known a lot of Christians who quoted Nietszche at one time or another, and because of the ubiquity of Nietszche quotes, many of them don't even realize that he was an atheist until you point it out.
- "The swastika is an ancient pagan symbol, so the Nazis were Pagans rather than Christians": This seems quite convincing at first, but swastika-like forms are found in so many cultural artifacts throughout history that the use of that shape cannot be taken as proof of paganism. Did Hitler know of the swastika's use in pagan culture? Did he know of any of its history? Or was he simply influenced by the fact that during his youth, he lived near a monastery whose coat of arms included a swastika? Again, not to belabour the point, but given his loud and repeated public professions of Christian faith, as well as the lack of privately expressed sentiments against God, as well as the official policies of the Nazi party, it would take much stronger evidence than this to disprove the fact that he was a Christian.
Christian claims concerning Hitler's "atheism" are historical revisionism at its worst. Every vague hint, every subtle clue to anything even slightly different from Christianity is blown wildly out of proportion, while all of the official policies of the Nazi government as well as Hitler's own speeches and writings are dismissed as unimportant, irrelevant, and misleading. If you listen to a typical right-wing Christian fundamentalist describing World War Two, you would think it was a struggle between the righteous forces of God-fearing Christians and the evil forces of godless heathens. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When confronted by the fact that Hitler's example hardly helps in their slander campaign against atheists, some anti-atheists suddenly switch gears to Marxism and point out that Marxism is atheistic, in an obvious attempt to tie atheism to past and present human rights abuses in Russia and China. However, that is a logical fallacy: the fact that all Marxists are atheists does not mean that all atheists must therefore be Marxists (if you don't understand why that's a fallacy, go back to school). It's also an unnecessary slander against Marxists. While I find Marx's communist ideas to be very seriously flawed, I must note that he never would have approved of the violent regimes of Stalin or Mao. Atheism is merely the refusal to believe in a God for whom no scientific evidence exists. It does not necessarily lead to Stalinism, or decadence, or the breakdown of family values, or any of these other ridiculous charges that are routinely levied at it.
Continue to 2. Should Christians Throw Stones?
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