“Well, it reminds me of our politicians, too..., telling people certain things but operating on a different level, and even contrary to what they tell the people, until they get into power and then their *actions* tell the story.”
—But with Hitler, we don’t just have public statements, we have reams of material from stenographers of his meetings, and casual conversations, and he sounds every bit like a pre-Darwinian Creationist.
One of the big surprises I had when I read Hitler’s book, and speeches, and other material recording his words, is that he DIDN’T use Darwin. Not that Darwin or Darwinism says anything to justify any of Hitler’s deeds – but that never stopped Hitler before. So it’s actually a bit puzzling to me that Hitler didn’t try to use Darwinism, even if Darwinism actually had nothing to do with his ideology. He twisted anything he could think of to try to justify his deeds – so perhaps he never thought of Darwin or Darwinism? Or perhaps Darwin disgusted him, just as Oparin did? Considering what he thought of Oparin, and what he thought of us evolving from apes, that’s probably the answer. But it’s interesting that he never mentioned Darwin – even just in passing to deride him.
Or maybe I missed something? I might have to check out Weikart’s book to see if he found material I missed. But if he has, no one seems to be posting any of it online anywhere.
As for the actions of the Nazis, it was nothing new. For the Jews, the only thing new they were facing with the Nazis was their technology. The reason the Holocaust occurred when it did was because the technology was available to pull it off - not because of any change in culture.
You don’t have to invoke the name of someone who is part of a philosophy to engage in that philosophy. You see..., it’s like Weikhart was saying in that this wasn’t a “regression” to the past and being inhumane — but rather, it was a “progression” to the future and a better way of doing things and how the human race was to improve. That’s the philosophy that was engaged in by Hitler.
That’s definitely not the philosophy of the Christian church (even if Hitler wanted to invoke the “name” of the Christian church in Germany, but he didn’t abide by its philosophy, that’s for sure) — and so — it’s the philosophy of thought that comes out of Darwin’s “thought” (the philosophy that stems from that) and of where there is survival of the fittest, so we (as a society) help the fittest to advance and rid society of the “useless eaters” who are a drag on society. Hitler’s Germany had institutions to rid society of the “useless eaters” because they were a drag on society. I see some of the same type of thinking evident in today’s society, in the U.S., too.
The only thing that would or can hold us back, as a society, from engaging in that (as efficiently as Hitler tried to do it), is what comes from Christian thought and morality as evidenced by what the Bible teaches and tells us about God and how we are to be in relationship to Him and others around us.
And what comes out of Darwin’s “thinking” (the philosophy from that) and the evolutionary thought — there can be no morals of the same type as we have in Christian thinking, but rather, the individual must be submerged to the good of the whole and if someone is a drag on society, then it’s better for them to be eliminated (for the good of all, as that’s “progression” doncha know...). Hitler seems very well to exemplify that, for sure...