Reddit AMA Participant Claims Nazism an Atheistic Doctrine
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Atheist Republic (News)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): n.d.
One Canadian professor has become popular, according to the reportage in The Vermillion, as a popular person among the far-right in the United States.
His popularity extends to the disaffected and insecure men, which, apparently, is a “key demographic in the modern conservative movement.” As with a host of public intellectuals, many will enter into domains outside of their expertise.
The article talks about the lobsters and social behaviour example, which was taken on by some marine biologists. In a Reddit Ask me Anything, the claim by Peterson was Nazism was, in fact, an atheist doctrine. When confronted on the answer with more questions, Peterson reaffirmed the claim.
The article retorts by stating that the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany were “very clearly Christian. By 1939, at the start of the Second World War, only 1.5% of Germans identified as atheists. Even if some atheists were pretending to be Christians to avoid persecution, that’s still a low number compared to the 95 percent that identified as Christian. This fact alone debunks the lie that Nazism was atheistic.”
On the belts of the Nazi soldiers, there was a phrase: “Gott Mit Uns” or “God is With Us.” It started with the Prussian military, but carried over into the Nazi Germany one. Hitler declare that Christians and not the international atheists who are the head of the nation (Germany) at that time.
Hitler, in translation from German to English, said, “I will never ally myself with the parties which destroy Christianity.” Hitler abandoned some beliefs later in life. However, he appealed to the religious sensibilities of the general populace in order to win support.
Germany had an intriguing movement. It was called Positive Christianity. The purpose was to purge the Jewish roots of Christianity to merge state worship and Christianity.
The article stated, “Although its attempts to ultimately separate its belief from both Catholicism and Protestantism makes this sound like a heretical Christianity, it still shows how the Nazi party found religion useful in establishing their dictatorship.”
The Vermillion clarifies. Christians were Nazis, but not all Christians were Nazi – not all Nazis were Christians. Nonetheless, the Nazi Germans leveraged religion to enforce worship of the state. “Blasphemy would be equal to treason, and vice versa. Eradicating dissenting opinions is how one ideology conquers a country,” the article explained.
The author concluded on state and religion separation. That these can “short-circuit empathy and rationality,” which can be some of the most toxic beliefs around us. “When pseudo-intellectuals try to lie about what dictatorships enforce to exercise control, they pose a danger to the rest of us.”
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