In my last post on this topic I pointed out that atheists have no reason to hate Jews. Nor do they have any history of persecuting Jews. The christians, however, have a very well documented history of hating and persecuting Jews. In fact, they even had published debates over the course of centuries as to whether or not they should kill all the Jews. Again, I refer you to James Carroll's wonderful book "Constantine's Sword" for further reading documenting this history.
Until the 20th Century, most christians chose not to kill all the Jews, not out of the goodness of their hearts or their alleged moral superiority but because Augustine reminded them that the Jews were the one's whose holy prophecies Jesus supposedly fulfilled. Thus, he reasoned, they should be allowed to live to serve as witnesses to the existence and genuineness of the prophecies. Otherwise, someone might argue that the whole story was made up. (Of course it was, but that is another topic.)
What is important to remember here is that Augustine felt the need to publish reasons for not killing the Jews back in the 4th Century. This was less than a century after the christian church gained worldly power under Emperor Constantine. In other words, the debate had been going between christians virtually throughout the whole of their history--at least since the time they gained political power and made genocide an actual possibility.
Given this history, it is nothing less than astounding to me that anyone could possibly believe that the Nazis were "godless" or pagan. The history of this "debate" amongst christians is quite well documented and should be mentioned as one of the many reasons that the recent attempts to blame atheists for the holocaust are scandalous, disgusting, and falsely defamatory to the point where any such claim should be considered hate speech aimed at non-believers or pagans.
Anytime you hear or read of another person asserting that the Nazis were atheists or otherwise godless, you can add the fact of these long public debates amongst christians regarding the "Jewish question" (as the Nazis called their continuation of the debate) to the long list of reasons to consider the accusation that the Nazis were atheists or pagans an outrageous lie.
Until the 20th Century, most christians chose not to kill all the Jews, not out of the goodness of their hearts or their alleged moral superiority but because Augustine reminded them that the Jews were the one's whose holy prophecies Jesus supposedly fulfilled. Thus, he reasoned, they should be allowed to live to serve as witnesses to the existence and genuineness of the prophecies. Otherwise, someone might argue that the whole story was made up. (Of course it was, but that is another topic.)
What is important to remember here is that Augustine felt the need to publish reasons for not killing the Jews back in the 4th Century. This was less than a century after the christian church gained worldly power under Emperor Constantine. In other words, the debate had been going between christians virtually throughout the whole of their history--at least since the time they gained political power and made genocide an actual possibility.
Given this history, it is nothing less than astounding to me that anyone could possibly believe that the Nazis were "godless" or pagan. The history of this "debate" amongst christians is quite well documented and should be mentioned as one of the many reasons that the recent attempts to blame atheists for the holocaust are scandalous, disgusting, and falsely defamatory to the point where any such claim should be considered hate speech aimed at non-believers or pagans.
Anytime you hear or read of another person asserting that the Nazis were atheists or otherwise godless, you can add the fact of these long public debates amongst christians regarding the "Jewish question" (as the Nazis called their continuation of the debate) to the long list of reasons to consider the accusation that the Nazis were atheists or pagans an outrageous lie.
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