Hitler was NOT an Atheist and Favored Christian Ideolgy.

I would like to begin my retort by thanking my opponent for the opportunity to debate such a provocative topic. ==== CLARIFICATIONS ==== My main objective is not to argue whether or not Hitler was an atheist. To the contrary, I hereby declare that my main objective is to create reasonable doubt that Hitler favored Christian ideology. I will set out to prove that Hitler was a fair-weather Christian, and that his main purpose was utilizing ANY argument that advanced his own ideologies -- to include various forms of religion. ==== THESIS === Much debate over Hitler's theological beliefs have been discussed numerous times in the course of recent history. The inescapable conclusion, based on my own research, denotes an inconsistency on the part of Hitler. For instance, my opponent quotes Hitler on several occasions where he champions Christianity. I do not challenge the historicity, authenticity, or the veracity of the quotes used by my opponent. Rather, I believe that my opponent neglects the other countless quotes where Hitler, in fact, often contradicts himself. === HISTORICAL CONTEXT === Adolf Hitler was raised in a Catholic household, as were many contemporaneous Germans and Austrians. According to reputable sources, though, Hitler often challenged his own religion and had grown very skeptical of its truth claims. He begrudgingly attended mass, not willingly. As a young man, his theological attention was drawn to Germanic paganism that was later supplanted by Christianity. From an early age, Hitler describes his true motivation for championing his outward religion. He was taught that the Jew was the assassin of God. Hitler found, and indeed sought, reasons to hate the Jews. That the Pharisees and Scribes offered up Jesus to be executed was just one more reason to despise Jews. Playing off the religious majority in Germany, Christianity, Hitler used this religion to stir Germans to his favor, not because he was at all deeply devout man. In fact, allow the contradictions to begin: "The individual may establish with pain today that with the appearance of Christianity the first spiritual terror entered into the far freer ancient world, but he will not be able to contest the fact that since then the world has been afflicted and dominated by this coercion, and that coercion is broken only by coercion, and terror only by terror. Only then can a new state of affairs be constructively created. Political parties are inclined to compromises; philosophies never. Political parties even reckon with opponents; philosophies proclaim their infallibility." -- Mein Kampf, vol. 2, chapter 5 [1] Indeed, Hitler looked upon the Christian value system as weak. His notions of the Aryan master race were one of strength. The notion of "turning the other cheek" reviled him, and he spoke about this conflict in a personal memoir to Joseph Goebbels. "You see, it's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn't we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?" -- Inside the Third Reich Memoirs, pg. 143 [2] "Hitler's evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity was crucial to the mediation of such an image to the church-going public by influential members of both major denominations. It was the reason why church-going Christians, so often encouraged by their 'opinion-leaders' in the Church hierarchies, were frequently able to exclude Hitler from their condemnation of the anti-Christian Party radicals, continuing to see in him the last hope of protecting Christianity from Bolshevism." -- The ‘Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich [4] === CONCLUSION === In summary, Hitler only payed lip-service to Christianity. He was not in any sense of the word Christian, and what he spoke in public speeches cannot nearly be trusted when juxtaposed by his personal memoirs, which detail his true feelings. Merely stating that you are a Christian in speeches is about as effectual as stating that you're an Asian woman, when really you're a black man. I await my opponents reply. === SOURCES ==== 1. http://www.mondopolitico.com... 2. http://books.google.com... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org...