Hitler, atheist or Christian?

Posted on 08-01-2011

Was Hitler an atheist? Some Christians claim that he was and use him as an example of how the "lack of religion" can ruin a person. Many of the largest Christian organizations such as Kent Hovind's Creation Science Evangelists convince their followers that atheism (the lack of belief in a god) is responsible for Hitler's actions. Adolf Hitler was in fact, not an atheist. In reality it was his religious beliefs that played a major role in making him a face of evil across the world.

So what religion was he part of? Hitler was born of a Catholic family but grew to reject his parents' religion when he converted to, you guessed it, another sect of Christianity. Hitler was a christian! He even started a new sect of christianity called "Positive Christianity" that he felt followed the Bible closer than Orthodox Christianity did. At various points in the Nazi regime he made attempts to replace Orthodox Christianity with his "positive" alternative and many Nazi soldiers had "Gott Mit Uns" ("God With Us") on their uniforms. Hitler was only trying to do what he thought was right in the name of the Christian God but belief in the Bible gave him the evil label he is known for. Hitler took a personal vendetta toward the Jewish community because the biblical stories said they were the ones who turned their back on Jesus Christ.

But didn't Hitler hate the Christians?

Hitler did mention a dislike for "Christians" but only in reference to the sect of christians that simply and unoriginally refer to themselves as "Christians." He himself though was in fact a christian in the sense that he was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Just to make it clear, Christianity is divided up into many different sects including the Catholics, Mormons, and the sect known as Christians (which was not one of the earliest christian sects). Hitler hated all of these different sects of Christ followers, hence why he made his own sect.

"Christianity [the sect] is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery....When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity [the sect]. Let's be the only people who are immunised against the disease."

- From the book "Hitler's Table Talk" by H.R. Trevor-Roper

Hitler & Darwin

Many religious apologists blame "darwinism" and the teachings of evolution for Hitler and the holocaust. They do this in hopes of making parents afraid of letting their children learn a field of science that discredits ancient myths contained in their "sacred" religious texts. Whether or not the knowledge of evolution inspired the actions of Hitler does not by any means change the fact that evolution is true. Regardless, lets still take a look at this claim for the sakes of exposing yet again the dishonest agenda of leading apologists.

The teachings of Darwin and the knowledge of evolution did not inspire Hitler. In fact, Hitler's beliefs were opposite to Darwin's. Darwin made popular the knowledge that nature undergoes a selection process this is NOT goal-oriented and that evolution FAVORS diversity. Hitler's actions were closely related to eugenics which was made popular by not Darwin, but Herbert Spencer. It is from this, not Darwin, that we get the phrase "survival of the fittest." Darwin did not equate evolution with upwardly-mobile progress. Eugenics is based on Lamarckism which is the discredited idea (replaced by Darwin's ideas) that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offsprings. Unlike what Darwin helped teach us about evolution, Lamarckism is progressive and goal-oriented.

Banned Books

Not only did Adolf Hitler worship Jesus Christ and was not influenced by Darwin or evolution but on the list of banned books in Nazi Germany were any books that belittled faith in Jesus Christ or any books that supported the claims by Charles Darwin. The following two passages are from the list of books to be banned in Nazi Germany.

"6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Haeckel)."
- Guidelines from Die Bucherei 2:6 (1935), page 279.

(Source: Strothman, pp. 143-144)

"c) All writings that ridicule, belittle or besmirch the Christian religion and its institution, faith in God, or other things that are holy to the healthy sentiments of the Volk."

- Blacklist for Public Libraries and Commercial Lending Libraries
Fighting League for German Culture: Guidelines
(Source: Stadtbibliothek Koblenz, 1993; pp. 5-7)

"Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work."
- Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

"Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews . . . The work that Christ started but could not finish, I--Adolf Hitler--will conclude."
- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Christmas celebration 1926

"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."
- Adolf Hitler, Reichstag speech 1938

"The judgment whether a people is virtuous or not virtuous can hardly be passed by a human being. That should be left to God."
- Adolf Hitler,Wilhelmshaven speech 1939

Hitler greets a Catholic Cardinal

Hitler leaves the Marine Church in Wilhelmshaven.

Hitler signing his autograph for a Christian fan

Hitler greets Muller the "Bishop of the Reich" and Abbot Schachleitner

Hitler in front of "Church of our Lady" in Nuremberg, Sept. 1934. Photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.

Hitler's Brown Army attending and leaving church services. These photos were published by Nazis during Hitler's reign. Source: Das Braune Heer: mit einem geleitwort von Adolf Hitler (Translation: The Brown Army: with a foreword by Adolf Hitler), Photos by Heinrich Hoffmann

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Hitler, atheist or Christian?

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