Adolf Hitler on God: Quotes from Adolf Hitler Expressing Belief & Faith in God

The first claim atheists will hear is “Hitler was an atheist.” The next claim–after you send quotes from Hitler expressing belief in god–is that he was not a Xian, but an occultist. It doesn’t matter, as you illustrate that he uses Biblical language–such as “sin” and “church.” And it doesn’t matter that any other Western person speaking of the Creator God would automatically be assumed to be speaking of Jehovah.

While I understand that Hitler “believed” at one point in his life, I’m still not convinced that Hitler wasn’t an atheist later in life. Most of those quotes came from years before he even held office (although some were from his early years as Chancellor).

I’d consider myself an Atheist, so I’d certainly like to believe that Hitler committed all his crimes in the name of religion, but I think it’s a much more complicated question than you make it out to be.

That said, I don’t think it matters in the grater debate of atheism vs theism. Even if Hitler was an atheist, and even if it was his “godless life” that lead him to commit such horrible crimes, that doesn’t make atheism any less true, and it doesn’t mean other atheists can’t live moral lives.

You bring up a fair point that just because a person once believes X doesn’t mean they can’t change their minds. That’s true.

I think the point though, is that it’s a widely used Xian claim that “Hitler was an atheist.” And most of the Xians who make this claim seem to be unaware that he _ever_ talked about his belief in god. When they’re presented with this–they move onto the idea that he was an occultist–glossing over their first presented claim that he was an atheist.

I also agree with you that it could be irrelevant what he believed–if his actions weren’t directly motivated by his beliefs. Even if he were a raging Xian or atheist, if that wasn’t what drove him to do what he did–it _is_ irrelevant. But this is part of the apologist’s bag o’ fallacies: If they can show us how many horrible people in history were atheists, then they can prove religious belief is superior to atheism.

I would say this column was more of a “response” to the on-going Xian claim–than a proactive, first-strike claim that Hitler was a Christian (since atheists I know don’t tend to bring up Hitler before apologists begin claiming he was an atheist).

Sorry–I signed that last post (above) as Richard rather than Tracieh. I meant to address it to Richard, but put his name in the wrong space! My bad.

One thing to remember too, all German troops had “Gott mein unt” (spelling?) inscribed on their belt buckles. If that isn’t an example of state sponsoring a particular religion then I don’t know what is. To be fair, not all Germans were Nazis or believed in a higher power.

Such a statement could have been used to boost morale similar to how Stalin reopened the churches later on in the war to rally the Russians. So long as people believe that there is something watching over them then they’ll fight that much harder to win.

gott mit uns (god with us)

They also used gott zur ehr (glory to god).

I always thought this line of argument kind of odd, that Hitler, Mao, Stalin — whoever — killed millions in the name of atheism. What evidence exists to prove such a claim?

As for Hitler, is their evidence that he ever claimed to be an atheist, or that he didn’t believe in any gods? There certainly is evidence that he claimed a theistic belief, at least at some point in his life. What evidence exists to show his making a contrary claim?

.. Richard makes a very interesting (& I think valid) point…

“That said, I don’t think it matters in the grater debate of atheism vs theism. Even if Hitler was an atheist, and even if it was his “godless life” that lead him to commit such horrible crimes, that doesn’t make atheism any less true, and it doesn’t mean other atheists can’t live moral lives.”

… nothing anyone does, says or thinks, has any affect on “the TRUTH”…

… athesism (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.) is not right or wrong due to anything their adherrants do / don’t do…