Atheist Bad Guys: Destroying X-Mas

You mean to tell me that after 40 years of this atheist stuff that I'm now a Christian Atheist?!All my past statements, my thoughts, my feelings, they're all wrong now?!God, I really hate not being on the distribution list when things change like this!Right now I am one PO'd CA!I need to go have a lie-down somewhere.

he should have quoted Franz von Papen a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer he said something like thisThird Reich is the first world power which not only supports the Papacy, but also implements its noble principlesor hitlers quote from mein kampf:" im only doing what the church was doing for 1500 years im only doing it more thoroughly"and the vatikan never condemed what the natzies where doing during the ware and yet after the ware they condemmed komunizem so they can stop BS-ing about neutralety

nwr writes:

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That is coming from a spokesman for the Pope.

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Incorrect. It's coming from the Catholic League which is, essentially, William Donohue. They are based in New York but are not part of the Archdiocese. While the CL claims to have been endorsed by various church leaders such as Cardinal Egan, they are not affiliated with the Church and Donohue is most certainly not a spokesman for the Pope.When Kathy Griffin won her Emmy and gave her "Suck it, Jesus!" acceptance speech, Donohue went (predictably) ballistic. She responded:

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And, for that matter, the Pope was critical of atheism because of Hitler, in a speech yesterday.

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Now, that's a bit of reaching. Here's what the Pope said: There is no direct connection between atheism and the Holocaust in that statement. One would need to assume that the Catholic position is that Hitler was an atheist and that the Holocaust was a result of atheism in order to make this conclusion and even then, you're having to employ dog-whistle analysis. Now, I certainly understand that the Catholic Church is doing a lot of damage control for the way they responded to the Holocaust, but I don't recall them giving a position that Hitler was an atheist. It wouldn't surprise me if they did, but I am unaware of any such statement.Remember, Ratzinger was living in Germany at the time and was a member of the Hitler Youth (as required) and drafted into the Army from the seminary. If as Pope he is trying to say that the Nazi regime was atheistic, he will need to explain his own experience. This isn't to say that the Third Reich didn't have issues with Catholicism, but surely he understands the difference between being an atheist and being of a different religious bent.But again, I wouldn't be surprised.

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

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Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can use mine.

That seems to be selective quoting. The text I see at various sites is:

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Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a reductive vision of the person and his destiny (Caritas in Veritate, 29).

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That sure seems to leave the impression that Nazi tyranny came from atheism, and that the Catholic church was among the good guys that opposed them.

See, that's the thing - the Nazis were definitely not atheistic, and the evidence of that fact abounds, from Mein Kampf to basically all of Hitler's speeches to the Nazi army uniform which included a belt buckle that said (translated) "God with us." The Nazi persecution of the Jews was a direct ideological descendant of Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism and author of On the Jews and their Lies.It is completely and utterly impossible to look at the characteristics of the Nazi regime and claim that it was atheistic - you might as well claim that Saudi Arabia has an atheistic regime.Even as a person who directly experienced life under the Nazis, Ratzinger's personal testimony as to whether or not the Nazis were atheistic would have less evidenciary significance than the actual writings and words of Hitler himself. In fact, with the theism of the Nazis so blatantly obvious in all of their material, I would sooner believe that Ratzinger was lying than believe the Nazis were atheist - 30 seconds on Google and YouTube would provide me more than enough evidence in direct quotes from Nazi speeches and excerpts from Hitler's writings to show that the Nazis were fundamentally Christian beyond a reasonable doubt.The only legitimate "atheist extremism" of the 20th century would be communist China and Russia, both of whom embarked on well-known programs to purge religion (other than worship of the state) from their respective populations. Even then, "atheist extremism" would be debatable as atheism was not the point or the inspiration, but rather the removal of competing authority figures for the Party and State. At first the Catholic Church supported Hitler as a "defense" against the Evil Atheist Communists of Russia, who were coming to eat their children. Or something. Opposition to Hitler only came later.