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?)
The Propaganda Professor 
[…] The Propaganda Professor looks at claims that Hitler was an atheist, finding evidence that he claimed Christianity as his belief. […]
POP, again this version has way less gramatical errors so could you delete the first post this one instead?
I have no problem with atheists who live and let live or criticize religions as having its their own rigid beliefes. However, so many Christians are opposed to atheists dogma yet seem seem to ignore cruelty and enforced conformity in order to promote “their one true way?” And they then try to impose their radical right views views on others who oppose them.
They are not looking for tolerance they are looking for complete conformity and have no concerns that aligning all of society with Christian values could be very repressive? But there has never been a push for conformity, that doesn’t include a good number of rationalizations and false facts, One theological thinker I debated asked me if I was present at creation, to which I said no, and his quick retort affirmed that in that case, how could I know the age of the Earth?–never once admitting that he also was not there but somehow knew for a fact that God created it all in 7 days? You see the Bible told him so? And when we start rationalizing everything away to make facts conform to our own beliefs, that’s when many human beings start inventing thier own stories and hanging onto their own myths. Still faithfully clingilng to one’s myths also does not disprove the existence of a God who is believed to be behind the creation of space and time itself.
Marx was also not inclined to spend facts foolishly in order to create his vision, He did not think that arbritarily protraying one man as evil and another man as good–should truly differentiate the two–before they decide they should get the facts straight. Therefore under Mark’s philliosophies Churches played a positve social function by getting many people to comfort other, endure hardships and help sow good behavior.
Anonymous
A shocking wake up call may make all the neo-nazis and racially superiorty nuts cling to stories about their kings abuse, while re;lying while his good intentions. But although they claim that the biggest conspiracy ever undertaken, was the the attempt to take down Trump’s white house before it damaged our democracy for ages to fools Americans into believing the truly largest conspiracy theory ever used to retain Trump’s hold on power was correctly denying human caused Climate Change and then using his power as the presisdents, to to actually used all the lies for his own gains and his own ambitions. And although instructed not to leak personal information to the press, each time his day in court ended, he was instantly blabbering and spreading lies that endangered plenty of his enemies and even his friends.
So my guess is that the largest fraudulent action ever taken by the government is (the one keeping Trump in power without a single bit of objejctive evidence proving his claims, and then selecting his incredibly selfish and narccastic Presidentcy who attracted voters using topics like the increasing price of Bananas and eggs, and after Trump suceeded in making Bidens term his last! Then after Biden’s last term, Trump suceeded in vilinanizing democrats for causing another Great recession that Republican Congressmen actually began.
And doesn’t the decades long fight over the very existence of human caused climate change also qualify as one of the biggest scams Republicans creasted? I. e. For about 5 decades Exxon Mobile circulated false clams that climate channge experts made even though spreading a mountain of false facts, and then misleding us all to belileve that,the really the culprit of those while arguing about climate debates today.But go back to views Exxon’s research in 1980 when its own scinetist expressed concerns for our invironment, because they discovered that human CO2 has actually been the biggest driver of climate change for many milleniums–simply because it was a massive lie that global warming had not ncreased, even after Esons own investigaton backed up the dangers of human caused global warming. So they just sat on their hands hoping to find ways for cilmate knowledege and every debate strategy to prove its existsence! And when mankind faces its last moments it wil confront the bogus facts and conservative attacks that tell us (Don’t Look up)! a phrase uses used to express the doubts and deceptions of scientific facts even after they are more probable than an anyone would care to know!
A shocking wake up call may make all the neo-nazis and racially superiorty nuts cling to stories about their kings abuse while he was actually relying on his own good intentions. But although they claim that the biggest conspiracy ever undertaken, was the the attempt to take down Trump’s white house before it damages our democracy and fools Americans into believing that the truly largest conspiracy theory ever used to retain Trump’s hold on power, was the one used correctly by denying human caused Climate Change via the powers of the presidents, to actually use those lies for his own gains and his own ambitions. And although he was instructed to leak personal information to the press about his case, each time another day in court ended, he was instantly blabbering and spreading lies that endangered plenty of his enemies and even his friends.
So my guess is that the largest fraudulent action ever taken by the government is (the one keeping Trump in power without a single bit of objejctive evidence proving his claims, and then electing him as a incredibly selfish and narccastic President who attracted voters by using topics like, the increasing price of Bananas and eggs? And after Trump suceeded in making Biden’s term his last one, after Trump also suceeded in vilinanizing democrats for causing another Great recession that Republican Congressmen actually began. And doesn’t the decades long fight over the very existence of human caused climate change also qualify as one of the biggest scams Republicans ever created? I. e. For about 5 decades Exxon Mobile circulated false clams that climate change experts made, even though spreading a mountain of false facts, and misleding us all to belileve that,the real culprits were those, arguing about climate change today.But go back to view Exxon’s research in 1980 when its own scienetists expressed concerns for our invironment, because they too discovered that human CO2 has actually been the biggest driver of climate change for many milleniums, and then claiming it’s horrific danger was a massive lie that global warming used to lie while saying it had not increased—even after Exxon’s own investigaton backed up the dangers of human caused global warming. Then Exxon just sat on its hands hoping to find ways for cilmate knowledege to be reaset after every feasible debate was used to prove its existsence! And while mankind faces our last moments it will be too late to confront the facts that conserative scientist kept attacking us about while speading the lies told to us about man-made cliamate change. But Don’t watch “Don’t Look up)! a phrase used to express the doubts about many scientific facts, even after they get more disproven by other facts that probably borh ICE agents, and anyone else who never revealed cared to reveal the lies that know are real
POP, please delete my worst efforts above, while preventing many of my comments from being deleted after the last posts addresed involve the type of mind that has often seen no the of my writing abilities.