In their never-ending quest to rewrite history (and everything else) to conform to their warped ideology, right-wingers naturally turn their attention to Hitler quite a bit. In fact, a good many of them have a very difficult time prying their attention away from Hitler.

But in a strategic move to appeal to those who may not be quite so deep in the fold, they also — when not comfortably ensconced in their secure ideological bunkers — indulge in some revisionism in order to try to convince the impressionable that Der Fuhrer was really not their kindred spirit. The main part of this strategy is the laughable claim that fascism was and is a product of The Left. This includes the myth that the Nazis banned guns — just like The American Left (which also hasn’t).

Another part is the ridiculous claim that Hitler was actually an atheist. Hardly a week goes by that some sort of meme doesn’t surface extolling this nonsense. And after all, if indeed he was a godless heathen, then surely that must prove that all godless heathens are equally evil, ne  c’est pas?

They can bolster this preposterous claim, or at least they believe they can, with the fact that several genocidal regimes have been officially atheist: e.g., Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. But it does not follow that these regimes were totalitarian and murderous because they were atheist; in fact, that’s putting the cart before the horse. The reason they were officially atheist is that they were totalitarian; and they did not want any other ideology competing with their own.

Even if it were perfectly true that Hitler had been atheist, that does not mean that he committed atrocities because of atheism, any more than he did so because of vegetarianism — which he did practice. Indeed, there has never been a case of atheism prompting large-scale massacres, while there have been many, many, many instances of religious fervor doing so.

But there is zero evidence that Hitler was ever into atheism (if one actually can be “into” something that is merely the absence of something else). In fact, he very much spoke out against it. After all he, like other right-wingers, strongly associated atheism with communism. And, contrary to what today’s right-wingers so often assert in their water-muddying moments, Nazis and communism are antithetical. In one speech he boasted:

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.

In fact, it would make much more sense to argue that Hitler was a Christian.  After all, he often presented himself as such, praising “positive Christianity” and portraying Jesus as an Aryan enemy of the Jews. No, really. For example:

“My feeling as a Christian points me toward my lord and savior as a fighter.”

The Nazis viewed themselves (like certain other fanatics we are familiar with) as agents of God’s Will. They even displayed the motto “Gott mit uns”, meaning “God (is) with us” on belt buckles and elsewhere. And in the very first chapter of Mein Kampf, the author declares that he’s doing the work of the Almighty — by slaughtering the Jews.

It’s true that Hitler’s religious views were complex, and changed over time. But as late as 1941, he commented:

“I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”

This was at a time when the War was breaking out in full bloom, and he had only about 4 years left to live. So if he was going to undergo any kind of “conversion” to atheism, it would have had to be a very abrupt and drastic, in a short amount of time.

Of course, there’s a difference in merely professing to follow a certain ideology and actually doing so. The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea is neither democratic nor a republic — nor does it in any way belong to the people.  The Nazis included the German word for “socialist” in their official party name, but they were by no means socialists. On the contrary, the socialists were among the first internees in the concentration camps; and the very first chapter of Mein Kampf freely admits that the party’s use of that label was deceptive advertising. (None of which has prevented right-wingers from citing the phony “socialist” brand as “proof” that the Nazis were actually leftists.)

Defenders of Christianity often insist that evil persons posing as Christians are not “true” Christians, and perhaps that’s a fair point. But that claim is often made by evil (or at least very far from honorable) persons also posing as true Christians — e.g. MAGA cultists. Hitler and the Nazis at least touted Christianity on numerous occasions, while never touting atheism even once. So when you stack up the evidence, there is much more for categorizing him as a Christian than there is for categorizing him as an atheist — since there is none at all for the latter.

Ultimately, Hitler became antagonistic toward Christianity, or at least organized Christianity, as he had been toward atheism. But that doesn’t mean that the Nazis suddenly became atheists. It means that the real religion of Nazism was… well, Nazism itself. It had many of the characteristics of a religion. As does just about any fanatical ideology, including the MAGA cult.

Like all totalitarians, including those who officially brand themselves atheists, Hitler never could have been a true atheist, because his one True God was himself; and his one dogma was the creed of absolute power. Any other creed he may have professed at any given time was simply a stepping stone to the altar of self-worship. (Does that remind you of anyone?)