you know i made a really good observation

[dyresand]

Many Christians and theists will disagree but ill say it anyways.
you need Atheists and agnostics and people in general who have no faith or belief in a god. This is saying a lot, could you imagine how the modern world would look like just imagine that there was no such thing as atheists and agnostics the US during ww2 since you claimed its an christian country would have helped Hitler. Why we didn't do it because we are secular we know that what hitler is doing is wrong but biblically its alright and justified.

[rexbeccarox]

Wait... what??

[The Grand Nudger]

You think that america would have given germany a hand in WW2 if it were a "christian nation"? Idk, I think that whatever percentage of the 1mill plus dead and wounded that were christian (very probably the vast majority of them) would be a fairly obvious sign that we might be off on the wrong foot with this one.

[dyresand]

You think that america would have given germany a hand in WW2 if it were a "christian nation"? Idk, I think that whatever percentage of the 1mill plus dead and wounded that were christian (very probably the vast majority of them) would be a fairly obvious sign that we might be off on the wrong foot with this one.

as many religious nutcases we have in america saying we should kill x people because they are not normal or x people because they are not x skin color. and well its still and issue.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah, but being people, even those groups whose ideologies would seem to be compatible often find themselves slitting the other guys throat for some other, unrelated reason. I'm not giving christianity a pass on the whole bit (after all, it was radicalzided anti-semitic christians who made up the majority of the Nazi party at every level and there were, from beginning to end, those authorities and officials of both catholic and protestant populations who openly and vocally supported the party - along with their relative flocks). I'm simply expressing doubt that "Christian America" would have reacted differently to Hitler than "Christians-in-America". Hell, even german christians got sick of the nazis over time (and rightly so, the oppressors found themselves, eventually, to be among the oppressed).

[Minimalist]

Um.... Hitler declared war on us.

[TheRealJoeFish]

Suggestion:

Don't say "I made a really good observation." Say "I made an observation," and then let other people tell you whether it's good or not.

(For example: I didn't start this post with "Really Good Suggestion:")

[abaris]

The best observation about America at any time would have been the "non olet" philosophy. Money doesn't stink, as long as someone's making a profit. There were a number of American companies doing business with Nazi Germany well into the war.

General Motors for example was the mother company of the German brand "Opel", which in turn provided the standard truck for the German army. There was of course Ford, operating out of Cologne. IBM of course provided punch card systems, making the job easier for the administrators of the Holocaust. And there was the CocaCola company, which arguably didn't do much for the war effort. But the first cable the German management sent to the mother company after the war was over, read "send accountant".

Apart from fertilising the fields for anti semitism over the centuries, Christianity actually didn't play that large a role in the decisions made by the Nazi leaders. They considered themselves deists, not Theists. Hitler stayed in the Catholic church, but in private he talked about his plans to dismantle the churches for good after the war was won. Himmler wanted to establish a whole new religion for his SS. They were required to call themselves "gottgläubig", which roughly translates into deist. And of course, he found his way to religious persecution, which he then claimed happened in the US today. Well, religious people have been persecuted in Nazi Germany. Not for their religion, but for standing up against Hitler's regime. Being part of a certain believe - apart from the jews of course - didn't earn you persecution. Some religious people, pastors and priests included, found it in their heart to stand up and their interpretation of their believes has played a role. But emphasis on some. But communists also stood up against the regime and their believe system played a role in that too.

The role of religion in Nazi Germany is a very complicated issue. You could write books about it, in fact there have been many books written about it. What I notice is, that the American media tends to simplify the matter. Liberal media outlets tend to say, they were all christians and I've heard the argument made often times that the standard belt buckle of the German army read "Gott mit uns" (god with us). Well, that's true, but it had a very long tradition dating back to the 19th century. The SS belt buckle for example read "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" (my honor is loyalty), which eerily resembles "semper fi". So, going by belt buckle alone, can I make the argument, that American Marines uphold the same tradition of mindless obedience?

The conservative media on the other hand and many conservative politicians talk about the Nazis being atheists, which is equally untrue. I've just watched a clip where Rick Santorum pulled another Nazi comparism out of his ass. Of course, again garnered with the loss of religious believes in Germany - untrue - over 90 percent of Germans indentified themselves as Christians at the time.

[Huggy Bear]

Many Christians and theists will disagree but ill say it anyways.
you need Atheists and agnostics and people in general who have no faith or belief in a god. This is saying a lot, could you imagine how the modern world would look like just imagine that there was no such thing as atheists and agnostics the US during ww2 since you claimed its an christian country would have helped Hitler. Why we didn't do it because we are secular we know that what hitler is doing is wrong but biblically its alright and justified.

There was an "atheist" country during world war two, the Soviet Union. Also, in case you didn't know, Stalin's body count was much higher than Hitler's.

[Minimalist]

Stalin's body count was much higher than Hitler's.

Particularly of Germans.