Why do some theists bring up Adolf Hitler when discussing atheism?

[happyukatheist]

It has always baffled me, why some theists bring up the name of Adolf Hilter when debating with atheists.

Ive been watching theist/atheist debates on UTube for a while now and see this quite alot, so I desided to find out for myself.

As a avid reader of anything to do with World War II, I desided to read Mein Kampf, and found out that he was a christian, a bitter twisted power hungry jew hater, but still a christian.

Why dont these people check their facts before opening their mouths, or dont they care about facts and just try using the name as a shock tactic.

Oh by the way, it was the most boring book I have ever read.

Has anyone else come across this, what do you think when it comes up.

[chasm]

Well, I don't know. But they are dead wrong anyhow. Hitler was Roman Catholic.

[HeyItsZeus]

This has never happened to me so I can't say.

[tackattack]

Because they're ignorant?

[happyukatheist]

Because they're ignorant?

Yes i would agree with that, but some of these people are well educated, it seems to me to be a selective ignorance, or to put it another way, they choose to believe that because it fits in with their world view.

[Ace Otana]

Why dont these people check their facts before opening their mouths, or dont they care about facts and just try using the name as a shock tactic..

There are many people who attack things they know nothing about. I call it "one sided view". You only see it from one side, one side of the story. Many don't even bother looking into the other side, to study it and judge it once you've learnt a good deal about it. They just stand against it because they are very closed minded to the point where looking into other ideas isn't an option.

Crock-a-duck anyone?

Some do know but opt for willful ignorance. Hitler was a theist, but as you know christians like to try and turn that around just like they do with the burden of proof.
I'm not even remotely suprised.

It doesn't bother me though. The less they know, the more they attack....the dumber they look.

[duffman21]

i have also heard this argument against atheism and it clearly shows people's ignorance so don't worry...Hitler and his soldiers had "God with Us" on their belt buckles for their uniforms and in no way KILLED in the Name of atheism. Stalin was an atheist and there is no evidence or inclination that he KILLED in the Name of atheism...he was also a very evil man w/ his own agenda of corruption. Hitler was a very bad christian, stalin was a very bad atheist. end of convo..

it almost hurts just to talk about because it is such a mind-numbing argument to someone who has embraced this idea of COMMON SENSE. jesus fucking christ...

[The Omnissiunt One]

Hitler's position on God was very contradictory. His apparent Catholicism was likely a respectable front for the largely religious German people. However, he was evidently quite superstitious, as he invested a lot of time in collecting ancient relics and stuff. So, in other words, he wasn't a rationalist by any means. Even if he was, so what? One nutty atheist doesn't mean that all atheists are secretly genocidal maniacs. Though, in my case, I am.

[thesummerqueen]

When you're trying to 'prove' something is 'bad', as many Christians would love to do to atheism, the format to do so follows what they consider a logical equation of sorts. "Atheism = bad, how do I prove it?" They connect up other things they think are bad, like evolution (Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, natural selection) and hook it with something that's SORTA similar (Hitler's ridiculous ideas of a master race) and somehow decide they amount to the same thing. They do this by 'cherry picking' quotes and ideas from Hitler and taking them completely out of context, much as they do Darwin, and saying "see?! see?!" Nevermind if the quote they lifted actually meant IN CONTEXT what it does OUT OF CONTEXT. Why label him atheist? Obviously because no good Christian would ever try to exterminate a race like that. (Riiiiiight.) It all goes hand in hand.

The cherry picking process is seen all over the place where politicians, religious leaders/followers, ignoramuses, and media outlets pick whatever pieces of a story or source they want just to prove their own point. The second most common place you see this, outside of direct bible quotes that are supposed to 'prove' whatever bullshit is being spilled out of the pulpit that week, is when fundamentalists try to prove this is a christian nation by cherry picking quotes from the founding fathers. Inevitably, when you dig a little deeper, the ascertains fall apart.

I guess their flow of logic is that anyone who believes in evolution must be an atheist, and since Hitler ascribed to something they wrongfully equated with evolution, that must make him truly an atheist, and since both are bad, well...Hitler's doubly damned. And yet somehow he's never given the credit due to him by those same fundamentalists who think there's a Jewish world conspiracy. I guess since he's atheist, he doesn't deserve to be recognized as someone taking out the enemy. Irrational people never make sense.

The sad part about this is the retroactive logic they apply to evolution BECAUSE of Hitler. Hitler ascribes to something like evolution, therefore evolution is evil, because Hitler was evil. Well, no, the study of evolution was around before Hitler, you numbnuts. You can't blame an idea for the person who comes around later and perverts it. To paraphrase someone else, that's like telling Rosie O'Donnell that she can go ahead and blame her fork.

But to answer your question, no...they don't give a crap about facts unless they match their opinions. And some of them are just smart enough to know this, and also smart enough to know that most people just lay down and accept whatever is told to them without much critical thinking attached to it. Therefore they find it easy to perpetuate their hysteria and lies in order to spread their own propaganda...oddly enough, the same thing Hitler did. So, by their own logic... Hitler spread propaganda...Christians spread propaganda...are Christians evil?

Lewis Black made a hilarious bit of commentary on Glenn Beck's habit of doing this in his Back in Black segment on the Daily Show. If you hit up the website, look up "Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourette's" and prepare to laugh nearly until you throw up.

[krazedkat]

I must say that Mein Kampf is quite an interesting book (I read it untranslated...). Anyway, he was definitely a Christian, he said it many times. It's like thinking Obama is a Muslim .