John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> They were by no means "undeniably" Christian.  There is good ground to deny.

> When contacted by American chaplains, many German prisoners-of-war 
> professed either atheism or nature-worship.  It is true that most were 
> nominally Christians (specifically, either Lutheran or Catholic), but 
> they had long abandoned whatever faith they had acquired from either of 
> these churches.

  The problem with the claims that nazis were atheists is the implied
correlation-implies-causation. In other words, nazis did what they did
*because* they were atheists (and they would not have done it if they
had been christians). This is unjustified.

  Nevertheless, whether the nazis were religious or atheists, it doesn't
really matter. The *origin* of antisemitism is largerly religious. Religion
caused the spread of antisemitism and prejudice against the jews. Without
the Catholic church it's very possible that the nazis would have not been
antisemitic (for the simple reason that there would have not been a widespread
negative notion of the jews).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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