Nobody died and put you in charge of my argument. If you can't see the connection between pieces of my argument, I can't force it on you, but let me just suggest, for conjecture's sake, that when I make a chain of argument, the pieces have something to do with each other.
All I said was that the claim that Hitler was a sincere, devout Christian was in severe doubt.
It's in severe doubt in devout christian apologist circles. It is not in severe doubt in historical circles, such as those of the custodians of the USArmy intelligence evaluation.
This is NOT the same as defending (or even happening to be discussing) historical evidence for anti-Semitism within the Catholic Church; let alone trying to parse to decide how much was native to Catholicism, how much was "steeped into" the culture of Europe, or how much those two elements overlapped.
Oh, indeed, how was anti-semitism "steeped into the culture of Europe", other than by the Catholic Church's 1400 years of intense propaganda?
If you want to pursue that discussion, great; but it does not particularly interest me at the moment. Please look to other posters to continue developing that topic.
Hitler, like millions of other Germans, was anti-semitic because he was educated in a famously anti-semitic church, in Germany, as attested to by his sister, friends and teachers, to whom he voiced a desire to become a priest, long before he had any thoughts of "scamming" 50 million germans into helping him mass-murder jews--comic-book incredible as such an assumption is. Like the theories that he was completely cynical in his public preseentations of his own convictions, the theories that he was anti-semitic because he was a nudist, or a vegetarian, or a teutonic savage tree-sprite Odin-ist, or because his mother was impregnated by someone who was hypothetically jewish--are not the way a sane person without an ax to grind would bet. A sane person would bet that the reason the other 10s of millions of christian germans were virulently anti-semitic, is the same reason Hitler was anti-semitic.
A sane person would bet that the reason the other 10s of millions of christian germans were virulently anti-semitic, is the same reason Hitler was anti-semitic.
Well said and succinct.
You are acting like a troll, don. I didn't claim to be in charge of the argument. I answered one point out of your argument and made it quite clear I just plain wasn't interested in the others. The condition of Adolph's soul is not the same thing as a historical analysis of anti-Semitism on the continent. One can lead to a discussion of the other, but it doesn't HAVE to.
It's in severe doubt in devout christian apologist circles. It is not in severe doubt in historical circles, such as those of the custodians of the USArmy intelligence evaluation.
Claiming that one of the greatest mass murderers in history was "really a Christian" is ONLY going to cause you to lose all credibility, except with the atheist club around here.
Hitler co-opted elements of Christian theology to make his race-based pseudo-philosophy more palatable in the social context of the times. Just as Bubba and Jimmuh Carter donned the mantle of evangelical Christianity in the States to further their careers.
Oh, indeed, how was anti-semitism "steeped into the culture of Europe", other than by the Catholic Church's 1400 years of intense propaganda?
That's a question for a professional historian. Like I said, that's not what I am concerned with.
Hitler, like millions of other Germans, was anti-semitic because he was educated in a famously anti-semitic church
Yup. But somehow none of the other German leaders, from the Kaiser to Hindeburg, ever felt it their duty to engage in genocide; and to invade the rest of Europe and Russia; and to exterminate as many Jews as they could reach in every country they subjugatted. Hitler was an outlier in the data. For you to insist that he was a mainstream, sincere Christian will not earn you any credibility.
Cheers!