Okay, lets just set this straight...

[skull_bearer]

The Nazis did not have an atheist manifesto.
They did go against any organisation that wasn't the Nazi party, and so organised religion, such as Catholicism, was not so hot with them. But the same could be said of everything from youth groups to trade unions, anything that could potentially get in the way of party authority was disbanded, some more forcibly than others.
Frankly, the treatment organised religion got, when compared to trade unions and rival political parties, was a fucking feather touch. They were mostly left alone as long as the individual priests didn't say anything bad about Nazi policy and leaders. If they did, well, they got what everyone else got who spoke against the status quo, a stay in a KZ. You weren't even banned from joining the SS if you was devout, sure you got laughed at and passed over for promotion, but these are the friggin' Nazis we're talking about here.
Also, can anyone name me a high-ranking nazi who was an atheist? I really can't think of any. Hitler was Roman Catholic and Himmler was off in his own little Teutonic reality, but I don't know much about the others.

So, Emperor Palpatine, shut the fucking hell up, you are the last person to talk and now I'm going to make a great big 'Gott Mit Uns' sign to take the the protest on Saturday.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Actually I'm pretty sure the Nazis did repress organized religion, not out of hostility to the concept as was the case in the Soviet Union but out of wanting to avoid separate power centers that could rival the Party.

The Nazis were hostile to atheism, as they identified it (very justifiably) with Communism. Not many Nazis were churchgoing Christians in the leadership but their base was mostly Protestants in Northern Germany and lapsed Catholics in Southern Germany.

Fascist hostility to organized religion was more about fear of rival organizational centers than it was about seeing religion as a societal weakness. Now, the Soviet Union was indisputably hostile to all religions, including Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity but that's one of the many ways that the Soviet dictatorship differed from the Nazi one.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much as I thought.

[sorion.livejournal.com]

It's Palpatine, what did you expect...?

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Darth Vader to throw him down a pit?

[deborahkla.livejournal.com]

Palpatine always was a jackwipe.

[fishlegs.livejournal.com]

Godwin's law, dude.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when even the pope is making ad hitlerem arguments, you know their cause is in trouble.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Moreso when he actually was a Nazi Party member. He was one of the ones that didn't really have a choice given that it was about that time when the Red Army was pushing toward Germany loaded for bear and beating the Wehrmacht's candy asses all over the place. He certainly was no Kurt Waldheim. But surely the Holy Father has *someone* reminding him that using Nazis is not a good PR move for him?

[arkan2.livejournal.com]

Er, good show and all that, but would mind explaining for the benefit of those of us not presently in Britain what is the context of this delightful rant/history lesson, and to which protest you refer?

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Oh, the pope condemned atheists of being like Hitler, and a bunch of us who don't like out tax money being spent on a massive papal visit when services are being cut left right and center set up a march to protest the pope's presence here.
12,000 people turned up.
We rock.

[tarangryph.livejournal.com]

I saw this list of quotes over on atheist blog Pharyngula and thought of you:

List of Hitler quotes — in honor of the papal visit to the UK. Enjoy. ;)

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Richard Dawkins did a great speech at the protest about how the pope is the last person who should be calling anyone nazis, quite beside the fact that he just Godwined himself.

[angels-chinese.livejournal.com]

It wasn't as simple as you think. If you don't believe me, believe Ian Kershaw. Read "Mein Kampf" at least to know what Hitler thought about Christian Churches in 1924. Of course, it's simplier to be sure that you already know all the answers. Especially when these answers perfectly match your personal beliefs.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

As I said above, if you'd bothered to read it, I agree that the nazis did not like organised religion of any stripe. It was a challenge to their power. This does not change that Hitler never renounced his Catholic faith, and made it quite clear he believed in god. This post is meant to refute the pope's allegation (also made by tons of people who shoudl really know better) that the nazis were an atheist movement. Read the damn post.

[angels-chinese.livejournal.com]

I've read it. Again: it was more complicated. Read "Mein Kampf" and you'll see that Hitler's demands to the Churches were ideological. It wasn't only about power; if Reich was only about that, there would be no Holovaust, by the way. Hitler surely was Roman Catholic before the middle of 1920s, but not after. He never renounced his faith, but since 1930 he never said he was Catholic either. He spoke about Christianity as of something foreign or at least external. Yep, he believed in some god, but it certainly wasn't Jesus Christ, there's no evidence of that.

The Pope should choose the words better, I believe. Here I am with you: atheism as such had nothing in common with Nazis. The were very, ahem, spiritual. Not materialists for sure. But it was not Christianity that made them kill.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

But it was not Christianity that made them kill.

Then we are in agreement, why are you bothering me again?

[angels-chinese.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry for that.