Racial Evolution 101

Hi Buzz, I feel you're mistaken about him being "highly" influenced by this. Most, if not all, of his reasons seemed to center from the teachings of the Church he attended in his youth. Hitler was not an evolutionist or anything he considered "atheistic". He thought himself a Christian and he felt he was doing the Lords work by killing the Jews who had killed the savior."My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people." -Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)If you need more evidence besides his speeches read 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." Adolf Hitler. Years later, when in power, he quoted those same words in a Reichstag speech in 1938. Hitler goes on and on about this stuff... Acclaimed Hitler biographer, John Toland, explains his heartlessness as follows: "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..."Hitler's Germany also combined the state with the Church. Soldiers of the vermacht had belt buckles inscribed with: "Gott mit uns" (God is with us). His troops often were sprinkled with holy water by priests. Under his administration, Jesus prayers became mandatory in all schools. "Hitler's inspiration" came from two things: Christianity, and WWI. He had fought on the frontlines in WWI and was severely distraught when he learned the German politicians had surrendered Germany. All the thousands he watched die in the trenches from bullets, artillery, and gas had died in vein he thought. He needed to place blame and this is where his Christian side came in to place it on the Jews who were referred to as "perfidious Jews" ("perfidy" means treachery) by the Church he had been an alter boy for in his youth in which he was an acclaimed "soldier for Christ". Hitler's life story is a sad one filled with extreme violence and brain-washing beliefs that made him into a terrifying individual. All of this shouldn't be that surprising really given the very extensive history of Christian crimes against the Jews for having "killed their savior". As Zangwill put it, "The Jews are a frightened people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have broken them down."P.S. I highly suggest, as mentioned by a friend, these books:Helmreich, Ernst Christian, "The German Churches Under Hitler," Wayne State University Press, 1979
Hitler, Adolf, "Mein Kampf," translated by Ralph Manheim, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971
Laffin, John "Hitler Warned Us: THe Nazis' Master Plan for a Master Race," Brasseys Inc., 1995
Scholder, Klaus, "The Churches and the Third Reich, Vol 1" Fortress Press, 1977
Scholder, Klaus, "The Churches and the Third Reich, Vol 2" Fortress Press, 1977
Snyder, Louis L., "Hitler's Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich's Most Notorious Henchmen," Berkley Books, 1990
Toland, John, "Adolf Hitler," Anchor Books Doubleday, 1976
Macfarland, Charles S., "The New Church and the New Germany," Macmillan Co.[This message has been edited by Garf, 04-05-2004]

Just wanted to mention that MarkAustin makes some very good points.You really need to understand the time that Darwin lived. Thinking that "whites" were better then "non-whites" was very old and very accepted in the society. If you ever read some of U.S. President Lincoln's own speeches (the ones that weren't "revised" for modern reenactments) you would think he was a racist by today's standards. "I agree with Judge Douglas that he [a black] is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in color perhaps not in intellectual and moral endowments," (Lincoln in a speech on Oct. 13, 1858 -- Lincoln-Douglas Debates) The Founder's Library - Lincoln-DouglasDoes this mean that Lincoln was a racist lunatic and that we should blame him for other's racism? Certainly not. Lincoln was influenced by the society in which he grew up in, that is to say, a society that believed whites were better then blacks and had so for hundreds of years before Lincoln or Darwin were even born (If you need proof of the oldness of racism I can offer it as well). Overall, Lincoln helped civil rights and was against slavery of a person based on race, a lot like Darwin.P.S. Sorry for getting so far off topic.[This message has been edited by Garf, 04-04-2004]