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WAS HITLER AN ATHEIST OR A CHRISTIAN?
Both believers and atheists are still debating this question. Some
Christians have erroneously asserted that Hitler was an atheist; some
atheists have erroneously asserted that Hitler was a Christian. Both
assertions are wrong. Hitler was neither -- but….
Hitler
was born in a Catholic, Austrian family. In time Hitler rejected Catholicism
and Christianity in large part because of the influence of a fanatical
“atheist” by the name of Friedrick Nietzsche. Nietzsche was an influential
German philosopher of the 1800’s who saw Christ and Christianity as an
abhorrent expression of weakness. A true leader, in Nietzsche’s view, had to
be a “Superman,” free from the shackles of religion and ready and willing to
use cruelty to achieve power and control over the masses.
“Thus...Nietzsche
offered grounds for the reprehensible Nazi ideology of a superior race
exercising its will to power as it saw fit. Hitler was living out what
Nietzsche had envisioned, trying to prove himself to be the Übermensch
and the precursor of the Master race. He despised weakness as much as
Nietzsche did and wanted to "transvalue" the current social values into
something that supported the aggressive instinct. He wanted to become, as
Nietzsche called it, a "lord of the earth."[i]
Hitler was so
enamored with Nietzsche that he gave his fellow fascist dictator Mussolini a
set of all of Nietzsche’s works during one of their meetings. Nietzsche’s
works may have helped solidify Mussolini’s atheism and his cruelty.
Hitler’s other mentor was a
Renaissance political writer by the name of Machiavelli. Machiavelli’s very
influential work, The Prince, was Hitler’s bedtime reading[ii].
Machiavelli had no place for Christian morality and openly encouraged
leaders to use deceit and cruelty to gain and to retain power. Machiavelli
acknowledged a divinity, but in his teachings one cannot see any glimmer of
support for the Christian God or for Christian principles.
"Machiavelli argues that Christianity fosters the wrong civic virtues. The
Christian learns humility, denial and contempt of the mundane things of this
world. Christianity he says fosters submissiveness and indifference to one's
duties and responsibilities as a citizen."[iii]
Thus the two greatest
forces that shaped Hitler’s mind and that moulded his proud, arrogant and
cruel spirit were both “anti-Christian.” Nietzsche, the major force
that shaped Hitler’s unstoppable cruelty, was undeniably an
atheist.
Did Hitler, therefore, believe in some kind
of undefined Divinity? It appears that he did; but we must say so with some
reservation, as he may have used references to God to ingratiate himself
with the majority of Germans who professed to be Catholics or Lutherans.
After all, Machiavelli instructs that, most of all, a successful leader must
"appear" religious.[iv]
Thus it is conceivable that Hitler may have
put this principle into practice.
Therefore, though Hitler may have not been an atheist, one thing
can be asserted
with absolute certainty: Hitler had no place in his life and politics for
the Christian God,
as his beastly cruelty clearly
manifested. It is relevant to mention that Hitler's evil actions were
surpassed by the arch-atheist, Stalin.
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We Believe in God
The Greatest Artists,
Musicians, Philosophers, Scientists, Writers and Poets
Believed in God
...
(And a great many Nobel-Prize winners).
Unlike what atheists
propagate, the greatest minds of the past
believed in God.
Read the fully-referenced proofs in this book.
AVAILABLE IN BOTH PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK FORMAT ON AMAZON. |
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[i]
Nietzsche and Hitler,
Crime Library.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/nietzsche_crimes/7.html
(31 December, 2008).
[ii]
Niccolo` Machiavelli, The Prince. (Introduction by Anne
Rooney). London: Arcturus Publishing, p. 7.
iii]
Machiavelli: Discourses on Titus Livy.
http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfcjh/wiu/extend/discussion/machhum.htm
(31 December, 2008).
[iv]
Machiavelli, The Prince. Op.
Cit., p. 85.
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