Pope compares atheists to Nazis… does history agree?
In a recent speech in Edinburgh, Scotland, the pope stated, “Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a reductive vision of the person and his destiny”. His statement is upsetting non-believers… but is it true?
Although Hitler was baptized into the Catholic church as an infant, historical facts prove him to be a pagan. In 1935, Hitler abolished prayer in school and in 1938 he banned Nativity plays, carols and the crucifix image. By 1941, religious instruction for children fourteen years and up was abolished altogether. Nazis routinely purged the church from public policy, instead encouraging pagan spirituality (replacing Christian holidays, parades, symbols, etc. with pagan ones). Hitler stated “The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. The German race has existed without Christianity for thousands of years, and will continue after Christianity has disappeared.”
Contrary to what most people think, the Nazis were ardent socialists (hence their political party “National Socialism”). They believed in free health care and guaranteed jobs. They confiscated inherited wealth, spent vast sums on public education and inserted the authority of the state into every aspect of daily life. The Nazis declared war on smoking, supported abortion, euthanasia, and gun control. They declared themselves enemies of capitalism and the free market, provided generous pensions for the elderly, and maintained a strict racial quota system in their universities—where campus speech codes were all the rage. The Nazis led the world in organic farming and alternative medicine. Hitler was a strict vegetarian, and Himmler (Hitler’s right hand man who oversaw the concentration camps and coordinated and implemented the killing of approximately six million Jews) was an animal rights activist.
Hitler was also an evolutionist. He often quoted Darwin and relied heavily on his evolutionary concepts to justify his war. The historian R. Hickman, in his book Biocreation, said: “Hitler was a firm believer and preacher of Evolution. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler clearly sets forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and the extermination of the weak to produce a better society.”
In conclusion, history proves Hitler to be a paganist/socialist/evolutionist. However, the pope’s warning should be taken very seriously. Just as the Nazi attack on Christianity was part of a larger war on individual freedoms and the idea of universal truth, many non-believers in our country have created whole postmodern cosmologies to try and prove that traditional religious morality is a scam, that there are no fixed truths or “natural” categories, and that all knowledge is socially constructed. Atheists, agnostics, and the leftists in our country have done an insane job of twisting and reversing the facts of history. Some of their principles, arguments and passions (ie: lack of tolerance towards traditional values) do have troubling echoes to Nazism. We need to speak up and expose the lies that they are indoctrinating through the MSM, Hollywood and our educational system before it’s too late.
