Subject: Hitler was an atheist!
From:    mathew 

Typical posting:

Hitler was an atheist, and look at what he did!

Response:

Adolf Hitler was emphatically not an atheist.  As he said himself:

   The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in
   his own denomination, of making _people_stop_just_talking_
   superficially_of_God's_will,_and_actually_fulfill_God's_will,_and_
   not_let_God's_word_be_desecrated._[orig. ital.]

   For God's will gave men their form, their essence, and their
   abilities.  Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the
   Lord's creation, the divine will.  Therefore, let every man be
   active, each in his own denomination if you please, and let every
   man take it as his first and most sacred duty to oppose anyone who
   in his activity by word or deed steps outside the confines of his
   religious community and tries to butt into the other.

   [...]

   Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will
   of the Almighty Creator: _by_defending_myself_against_the_Jew,_I_am_
   fighting_for_the_work_of_the_Lord._[orig. ital.]

          -- Adolf Hitler, from "Mein Kampf", trans. Ralph Mannheim.

Hitler certainly believed that he was a Christian:

   The Fuhrer made it known to those entrusted with the Final
   Solution that the killings should be done as humanely as
   possible.  This was in line with his conviction that he was
   observing God's injunction to cleanse the world of vermin.
   Still a member in good standing of the Church of Rome despite
   detestation of its hierarchy ("I am now as before a Catholic and
   will always remain so" [quoting Hitler]), 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 -- so long as it was done impersonally, without cruelty.

          -- John Toland (Pulitzer Prize winner), from "Adolf Hitler",
             pp 507, talking about the Autumn of 1941.

The "I am now as before a Catholic..." quotation from Hitler was
recorded in the diary of Gerhard Engel, an SS Adjutant, in October
1941.  Hitler was speaking in private, not before a mass audience, and
so it is difficult to dismiss the comment as propaganda lies.

Of course, someone bad believing something does not make that belief
wrong.  It's also entirely possible that Hitler was lying when he claimed 
to believe in God.  We certainly can't conclude that he's an atheist, 
though.

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