Adolf Hitler on Religious Faith

M

Medicine*Woman

Jesus: Mythstory--Not History!
Valued Senior Member
*************
M*W: Many people think Adolf Hitler was an atheist. I'm posting this for comment and discussion:

If Adolf Hitler's political and social policies were a product of atheism and secularism, why did he consistently say that religious faith was necessary for morality? Why did Hitler insist that faith is one of the most important things in life? Adolf Hitler's own words make it clear that he was convinced of the importance and necessity of religious faith - not at all unlike the conviction of conservative Christians today.

1. Adolf Hitler: Faith is the Only Basis for Morality

This human world of ours would be inconceivable without the practical existence of a religious belief. The great masses of a nation are not composed of philosophers. For the masses of the people, especially faith is absolutely the only basis of a moral outlook on life. The various substitutes that have been offered have not shown any results that might warrant us in thinking that they might usefully replace the existing denominations. ...There may be a few hundreds of thousands of superior men who can live wisely and intelligently without depending on the general standards that prevail in everyday life, but the millions of others cannot do so.

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 10

*************
M*W: Any comments?
 
Hitler was an atheist. He used religion as a tool of control and social upbringing; he recognized the value of religion, but that doesn't mean that he was religious himself.
 
Norsefire said:
Hitler was an atheist. He used religion as a tool of control and social upbringing; he recognized the value of religion, but that doesn't mean that he was religious himself.
Click to expand...

I am not convinced he was an atheist or theist, but religion can be a tool. I've used it twice in the past 3 weeks. Once, it brought peace to my wife where she couldn't find any relief from stress. Simply quoting the applicable scripture is encouraging to the theist. And again, there was a boy who came over to my garage. It was my son's friend and I know they had a great time and spilled all sorts of cleaning supplies and made a huge mess of things. After talking to my son about it I went to their house to notify they boy's parents. While cleaning up, the boy came over to help, but he started saying he didn't do anything and was just watching my son. I almost trapped him in that lie, but I am not going to argue with a child. When his mother finally came over to fetch him we were nearly done cleaning up. I knew this family was religious because I went to church with them once. I told the boy then that I understood how much fun it was to do what they did, and that I was sorry he could not admit to it, but that it was between him and God. He about teared up, and I took it as an admission of guilt. I told him he may go and thanked him for coming over to clean up.

My point is that just because religion is a tool does not mean that Hitler was just using it and not believing in it himself.
 
Right, but it's been said that he spoke ill of the Christian faith in front of his superior officers; that hardly sounds religious to me. He said something along the lines of "Why can't Germany be like the Muslim nations? Why Christianity, with its meekness and flabbiness? The Muslims are much more war-like"
 
Medicine*Woman said:
*************
M*W: Many people think Adolf Hitler was an atheist. I'm posting this for comment and discussion:

If Adolf Hitler's political and social policies were a product of atheism and secularism, why did he consistently say that religious faith was necessary for morality? Why did Hitler insist that faith is one of the most important things in life? Adolf Hitler's own words make it clear that he was convinced of the importance and necessity of religious faith - not at all unlike the conviction of conservative Christians today.

1. Adolf Hitler: Faith is the Only Basis for Morality

This human world of ours would be inconceivable without the practical existence of a religious belief. The great masses of a nation are not composed of philosophers. For the masses of the people, especially faith is absolutely the only basis of a moral outlook on life. The various substitutes that have been offered have not shown any results that might warrant us in thinking that they might usefully replace the existing denominations. ...There may be a few hundreds of thousands of superior men who can live wisely and intelligently without depending on the general standards that prevail in everyday life, but the millions of others cannot do so.

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 10

*************
M*W: Any comments?
Click to expand...

he's not saying that he has faith in god. he's saying that he has faith that religion will control the stupid masses.
 
There is an interesting book on the subject which I have yet to read:
The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, by Richard Steigman

Traditional evaluation of Christian complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes focuses on the degree to which Christians allowed themselves to be used for Nazi purposes, but this presupposes a distinction between Nazis and Christians which did not entirely exist. Many Christians actively supported the Nazi agenda. Many Nazis were not only devout Christians, but also believed that Nazi philosophy was animated by Christian doctrine.

The Christianity promoted by the Nazis was labeled “positive Christianity,” a perspective that focused on the relationship between Christian promises of salvation and the German Volk as a special race of people. Point 24 of the NSDAP Party Program, created in 1920 and never rescinded, reads:

“We demand freedom for all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or conflict with the customs and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The party as such represents the standpoint of a positive Christianity, without owing itself to a particular confession. It fights the spirit of Jewish materialism within us and without us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our Volk can only take place from within, on the basis of the principle: public need comes before private greed.”​
 
spidergoat said:
There is an interesting book on the subject which I have yet to read:
The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, by Richard Steigman

Traditional evaluation of Christian complicity in the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes focuses on the degree to which Christians allowed themselves to be used for Nazi purposes, but this presupposes a distinction between Nazis and Christians which did not entirely exist. Many Christians actively supported the Nazi agenda. Many Nazis were not only devout Christians, but also believed that Nazi philosophy was animated by Christian doctrine.

The Christianity promoted by the Nazis was labeled “positive Christianity,” a perspective that focused on the relationship between Christian promises of salvation and the German Volk as a special race of people. Point 24 of the NSDAP Party Program, created in 1920 and never rescinded, reads:

“We demand freedom for all religious confessions in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or conflict with the customs and moral sentiments of the Germanic race. The party as such represents the standpoint of a positive Christianity, without owing itself to a particular confession. It fights the spirit of Jewish materialism within us and without us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our Volk can only take place from within, on the basis of the principle: public need comes before private greed.”​
Click to expand...

i guess he was right.
 
Who, Norse?

Slightly more common were anti-clerical Nazis who continued to accept basic theistic and Christian doctrines, but who repudiated churches and priests. This seems to have been a view gradually adopted by Hitler himself.​

It’s been said that Hitler only spoke positively about Christianity in public because he had to in order to maintain support from the German people; in private, he admitted to his true hatred of all things Christian. This view is based upon allegedly private comments recorded in the book Hitler Speaks, but Steigmann-Gall argues that the balance of evidence indicates that these statements are probably forgeries and are regarded as such by many scholars.​


It would be surprising if Hitler had never said anything critical of churches, priests, and Christianity and so the existence of some negative quotes is expected. What matters most is the overall balance of his commentary — and that is indisputably pro-Christian and pro-religion.​
 
spidergoat said:
Who, Norse?

Slightly more common were anti-clerical Nazis who continued to accept basic theistic and Christian doctrines, but who repudiated churches and priests. This seems to have been a view gradually adopted by Hitler himself.​

It’s been said that Hitler only spoke positively about Christianity in public because he had to in order to maintain support from the German people; in private, he admitted to his true hatred of all things Christian. This view is based upon allegedly private comments recorded in the book Hitler Speaks, but Steigmann-Gall argues that the balance of evidence indicates that these statements are probably forgeries and are regarded as such by many scholars.​
Click to expand...

Lori_7 said:
he's not saying that he has faith in god. he's saying that he has faith that religion will control the stupid masses.
Click to expand...

no, hitler...about the masses.
 
Somehow I don't think Taoism would have helped him control the masses at all. It did help him that the European Christian tradition contained anti-Jewish elements such as the passion plays.
 
Norsefire said:
Right, but it's been said that he spoke ill of the Christian faith in front of his superior officers; that hardly sounds religious to me. He said something along the lines of "Why can't Germany be like the Muslim nations? Why Christianity, with its meekness and flabbiness? The Muslims are much more war-like"
Click to expand...

sounds to me like he had no clue about christian history :)
 
Originally Posted by Lori_7
he's not saying that he has faith in god. he's saying that he has faith that religion will control the stupid masses.
Click to expand...

And look what he did...control the masses.

The thing to remember is that these people (the masses) were very isolated and easy to manipulate by someone like Hitler because they didnt realize that he was flashing or IOW's walking in the clouds.;)

If you look at the decisions he made they really made no sense at all. Some people say there is very good evidence he had syphilis but there is no doubt he was heavily into Amphetamines. So by mid-late 40s he was already into it for nearly a decade and they really started to take their toll on him.

I never seen any indication Hitler was religious at all, of course he played both sides of the fence. I will go on record and say that he was influenced by writers from that time and they certainly were not religious although there is strong evidence he (Hitler) dabbled in the occult but even that was just mild interest but nothing to pinpoint down.

Hitler was certainly nuts though. For one thing his idea of a master race of blonde hair and blue eyes when he himself had brown hair and brown eyes.
 
Last edited:
Lastly, i have seen images of Nazi doctors measuring heads. Yo the point that this must have been common for them....where did they get that from? I know where and i never heard of doctors since then doing that.
 
Yes, the Nazis were very concerned with comparative morphology of skulls. It all had to do with their pseudoscientific understanding of Darwinism. They believed they could show ethnic groups like Jews and Africans were "less evolved".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top