"Hitler was an Atheist"

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[edit] Definition

The claim that "Hitler was an atheist" is an often-presented but specious argument against the philosophical position of atheism. The argument, implicit

or explicit, is that since Hitler was self-evidently an evil, horrible person, anyone else who shares his belief must also be an evil, horrible person, and that theism is the only legitimate moral choice.

There are two obvious flaws in this argument. The first is simply factual: the claim that Hitler was an atheist is at best controversial and at worst simply untrue. The second and more telling flaw is that simply because Hitler had a particular belief does not make any person who shares that belief into a Hitler.

[edit] Discussion

[edit] Was Hitler an Atheist?

The historical record, and Hitler's own writings and speeches, are unclear upon this point. At many points in his writings, particularly Mein Kampf, Hitler expressed an apparently religious and theistic belief that he was doing "God's will" by his persecution and planned elimination of the Jews, as in the following quotations (which, unless otherwise attributed, are taken from Mein Kampf).

I believe to-day that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.
The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following: (a) Lowering of the level of the higher race; (b) Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness. To bring about such a development is, then, nothing else but to sin against the will of the eternal creator.
A folkish state must therefore begin by raising marriage from the level of a continuous defilement of the race, and give it the consecration of an institution which is called upon to produce images of the Lord and not monstrosities halfway between man and ape.
It is a sin against the will of the Eternal Creator if ... Hottentots and Zulu Kaffirs are trained for intellectual professions.
When He [Jesus] found it necessary He drove those enemies of the human race out of the Temple of God; because then, as always, they used religion as a means of advancing their commercial interests. But at that time Christ was nailed to the Cross for his attitude towards the Jews; whereas our modern Christians enter into party politics and when elections are being held they debase themselves to beg for Jewish votes. They even enter into political intrigues with the atheistic Jewish parties against the interests of their own Christian nation.
Whoever would dare to raise a profane hand against that highest image of God among His creatures would sin against the bountiful Creator of this marvel and would collaborate in the expulsion from Paradise.
For it was by the Will of God that men were made of a certain bodily shape, were given their natures and their faculties.
Of course, one doesn't discuss such a question with the Jews... Their very existence is an incarnate denial of the beauty of God's image in His creation.
Anyhow, the Jew has attained the ends he desired... the enemy of Aryan humanity and all Christendom is laughing up his sleeve.
And only for such action as is undertaken to secure those ends can it be lawful in the eyes of God and our German posterity to allow the blood of our people to be shed once again. Before God, because we are sent into this world with the commission to struggle for our daily bread.
The most devoted Protestant could stand side by side with the most devoted Catholic in our ranks without having his conscience disturbed in the slightest as far as concerned his religious convictions. The bitter struggle which both waged in common against the wrecker of Aryan humanity taught them natural respect and esteem.
Almighty God, bless our arms when the hour comes. Be just, as Thou hast always been just... Lord, bless our struggle.
I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work. (Speech, Reichstag, 1936)
My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only 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 against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before that it was for this that he had to shed his blood on 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..." (Speech, April 12 1922)
Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . we need believing people. (Speech, April 26, 1933)

Similarly, many of his governmental acts were apparently in support of religion, and in particular the Christian faith. For example, Christian prayer in school was made mandatory during the 1930's (it is interesting, to a cynic, that this particular parallel is never drawn when "prayer in school" is discussed in modern America). Hitler made strong references to "atheist Communists" as enemies to be fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Christianity, and Hitler proclaimed himself to be a long-standing and ardent Catholic. Even the military belt buckles proclaimed Gott mit uns, "God is with us."

On the other hand, much of the Nazi-created mythology harkened back to a pre-Christian (and largely Norse) paganism, and he was unrelentingly hostile to any power groups that might threaten his Nazi hegemony, including religious groups both inside Germany and outside (such as the Pope, whom he made plans to kill). Of course, a devout belief in Nordic religion would not make a man an atheist: on the contrary.

So at best, the statement that "Hitler was an atheist" remains controversial. Furthermore, the vast majority of Germans who joined the Nazi regime and carried out the "Final Solution" were demonstrably Christian. There is therefore little support to be found in the Nazi regime to the idea that atheists are somehow less moral than theists.

[edit] So what if he was?

However, a more serious flaw in this argument is that, even if Hitler was an atheist, that doesn't make atheists, in general, into Hitlers. It is much less controversial and better documented that Hitler was mostly vegetarian, a non-smoker, a teetotaler, a dog-lover, and a fan of Richard Wagner's music. Few theists would claim that loving dogs is somehow the mark of an evil person, or that abstaining from beer causes a person to go out and commit mass murder.

In general, statements of the form

  1. Adolf Hitler was an X
  2. Therefore, X's are bad

are logically fallacious and cannot be supported.

[edit] Other Examples of this Argument

Other variations of this argument replace Hitler with any other strongly-unpopular person who can be convincingly accused of atheism, such as Stalin, Pol Pot, or Chairman Mao. The same two objections apply : was the person truly an atheist, and if so, so what? Furthermore, the historical record is rife with massacres and war crimes committed by theists, often for explicitly religious motivations. One of the more infamous was that of Arnold Amalric, Papal Legate during the 13th century Albigensian Crusade, who told the besiegers at the city of Beziers to "Kill them all, God will recognize His own." Estimates of the number of civilians killed range from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand.[1]

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