Hitler was a Catholic. That is all I have said. Please refute this evidence.

He can't.

Already did.

Was...as in at some point in his life. By the time he was involved in WWII, he hated Christianity and Christians.

By the way, did I mention...

Did you even read what I posted!

Last I checked, Hitler also made use of automobiles. Indeed, he based a lot of ideas on militarism and machines; does that mean technology is morally wrong? Should you turn off your computer right now?

Somebody has riled up the Barking Moonbats...

<eerie>Bark Bark Bark</eerie>

That's it, I'm gonna hide in the closet until they fly away.

Or some serious refuting is done. Maybe the bats will assist?

Some people say Adolf Hitler was an atheist. They blame atheism for Hitler's philosophy and actions. But the historical record shows that Hitler believed in God and was convinced he was carrying out God's will.

Hitler was raised in a Catholic family. He went to Catholic schools and served as an altar boy in the Catholic Church. Growing up in this environment, he surely learned something of the centuries of discrimination and persecution the Church had supported against Jews in Europe.

Former Jesuit theologian Peter de Rosa describes the groundwork Catholic theology laid for Hitler and the Nazis: "[Catholicism’s] disastrous theology had prepared the way for Hitler and his ‘final solution.’ [The Church published] over a hundred anti-Semitic documents. Not one conciliar decree, not one papal encyclical, bull, or pastoral directive suggest that Jesus’ command, ‘love your neighbor as yourself,' applied to Jews."

Not surprisingly, then, Hitler wrote in his book, Mein Kampf: ". . . 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." He made essentially the same claim in a speech before the Reichstag in 1938.

Hitler considered himself a Catholic until the day he died. In 1941 he told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals: "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so." In fact, Hitler was never excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and Mein Kampf was not placed on the Church's Index of Forbidden Books.

As for atheism, Hitler specifically opposed it in a 1933 speech in Berlin: "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."

Hitler's biographer John Toland explains Catholicism's influence on the Holocaust. He says of Hitler: "Still a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite detestation of its hierarchy, he carried within him its teaching that the Jew was the killer of god. The extermination, therefore, could be done without a twinge of conscience since he was merely acting as the avenging hand of god. . .."

Even after World War II, Catholic assistance to the Nazis continued. The Vatican aided the escape of more Nazis than any other governmental or private entity. Christopher Hitchens adds: "It was the Vatican itself, with its ability to provide passports, documents, money, and contacts, which organized the escape network and also the necessary shelter and succor at the other end."

The Protestant influence on Nazi Germany was no better. Hitler is said to have greatly admired the German founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther. Among Luther's many denunciations of the Jews, there are such religious sentiments as: "The Jews deserve to be hanged on gallows seven times higher than ordinary thieves," and "We ought to take revenge on the Jews and kill them."

When Hitler was asked in 1933 what he planned to do about the Jews, he said he would do what Christians had been preaching for centuries. And the Nazis carried out their first large-scale pogrom of Jews in honor of Luther's birthday.

Christians constituted a wellspring of support for Hitler. Steve Allen notes that Nazi Germany in the 1930s "was the most church-affiliated nation in Europe. The German people were almost entirely Catholic and Lutheran. Despite such factors they launched the Holocaust and World War II." Charles Kimball likewise says the Holocaust "would not have happened without the active participation of, sympathetic support of, and relative indifference exhibited by large numbers of Christians."

Also in pre-World War II Germany, corporal punishment was used in the schools and schoolchildren were required to start their days with prayer. Today's advocates of spanking and school prayer should consider that those practices, although supported by religion, proved ineffective in promoting high ethical standards and good behavior among German youth.

Further, Nazi Germany's soldiers wore belt buckles inscribed "Gott mit uns" ("God is with us"). This slogan sounds eerily similar to Ohio's present motto, "With God, all things are possible."

Like many tyrants both past and present, Hitler used the mantle of religion to justify and further his selfish, hateful, and destructive philosophy. By conditioning people to blindly follow the pronouncements of authorities, instead of teaching them to think for themselves, religions often make it easy for such evil dictators and demagogues to succeed.

I just got a new See n' Say...

The Barking Moonbat says "Bark Bark Bark"

Your intelligence is really showing.

He's lost his mind. Im hoping Eljay comes back. Never thought I would utter those words.

I wonder whether he ever had one?

Yeah, I try to avoid arguments about Hitler. Good luck sorting all of that out.

As for teaching Intelligent Design, I had a pretty awesome philosophy professor in college who went over multiple creation theories and arguments and discussed the logic behind them quite thoroughly. He himself was an Agnostic, but had enough class to avoid injecting his own opinions into the subject matter. That's the important thing.

Oh just ignore the Hitler thing. Its pretty much done unless some choose to continue with it. There is another thread where it is being addressed.

College would be different and in that environment, I could see a class on philosophy, woman's studies or religion or ID being taught with no objection. That is not a problem. In high school where funding is limited, I think it becomes more of an issue. If a philosopher could teach the course without interjecting his own opinions on the subject matter, than it might be possible to conduct a fair evaluation of some theories. It would need to be pointed out that the class would address these specific religious concepts and there are others but this is what this class in particular will be focusing on. Im saying if you have to interject religion at all and it might be hard not to in the course outline.

oh yeah the wiki artical. I seem to remember you trashing wiki if anyone else used it.

and you have been shown many times over that Hitler was in fact a christian but you still refuse to see it.
And that explains you not seeing the facts of evolution.
And not seeing ID as the junk science it is.

Its only okay if the Christians post it. Then all the data is somehow magically elevated to the status of credible evidence. Didnt you realize that man!

lol yeah my bad

Oh I think it's entirely possible to conduct a fair evaluation of any theory with an objective lens. Most of the issues stem from the fact that people already have a religious or philosophical bias they would prefer being taught with the material to their children. That's also perfectly fine, but it belongs in religious schools, not public ones.

The way I would teach that in a public school would be to find the most objective text possible, make them read it, make them discuss it, make them learn it inside and out and decide for themselves what it means or if it is worth believing. The most important lesson that I learned in school was how not to believe everything that was put in front of my face.

You're very well-spoken and intelligent. That's hot!

The evidence against Intelligent Design is overwhelming.

The world is a dog-eat-dog world from the very get-go. The evidence for that is as well-confirmed as anything we know.

Well, that proves it right there.

If the unvierse had an "Intelligent" designer it wouldn't be dog-eat-dog.

An "Intelligent" designer would have made a very clear distinction between plants and animals and would have even made it impossible for animals to eat each other (like they would get sick and throw up, and couldn't benefit from the act even if they tried).

An "Intelligent" designer would have made all plants edible, and would not have created such a competitive environment.

Clearly this world was not designed by an "Intelligent" creator.

That's a given.

There's no question about it at all.

What's to teach?

Double post

Along Abra/James's train of thought....

The most irrefutable evidence that there is no Intelligent Design.... is humankind.