richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion
T III ' (, () O D ' H O () K A X D ']' 1 i H M O R A t. 7. r. I f (, I: / .V 7 275Christian hatred of Jews is not just a Catholic tradition. MartinLuther was a virulent anti-Semite. At the Diet of Worms he saidthat 'All Jews should be driven from Germany.' And he wrote awhole book, On the Jews and their Lies, which probably influencedHitler. Luther described the Jews as a 'brood of vipers', and thesame phrase was used by Hitler in a remarkable speech of 1922, inwhich he several times repeated that he was a Christian:My feeling as a Christian points me to my Lord andSaviour as a fighter. It points me to the man who once inloneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognizedthese Jews for what they were and summoned men to fightagainst them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as asufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christianand as a man I read through the passage which tells ushow the Lord at last rose in His might and seized thescourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers andadders. How terrific was His fight for the world againstthe Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, withdeepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than everbefore the fact that it was for this that He had to shed Hisblood upon the Cross. As a Christian 1 have no duty toallow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be afighter for truth and justice . . . And if there is anythingwhich could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it isthe distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have alsoa duty to my own people. 111It is hard to know whether Hitler picked up the phrase 'broodof vipers' from Luther, or whether he got it directly from Matthew3: 7, as Luther presumably did. As for the theme of Jewishpersecution as part of God's will, Hitler returned to it in MeinKampf: 'Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance withthe will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against theJew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." That was 1925. Hesaid it again in a speech in the Reichstag in 1938, and he saidsimilar things throughout his career.Quotations like those have to be balanced by others from his
276 T H E C; O U D E L U SIGNTable Talk, in which Hitler expressed virulently anti-Christian views,as recorded by his secretary. The following all date from 1941:The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was thecoming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity'sillegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. Thedeliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced intothe world by Christianity . . .The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light andserene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges:the pox and Christianity.When all is said, we have no reason to wish that theItalians and Spaniards should free themselves fromthe drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who areimmunised against the disease.Hitler's Table Talk contains more quotations like those, oftenequating Christianity with Bolshevism, sometimes drawing ananalogy between Karl Marx and St Paul and never forgetting thatboth were Jews (though Hitler, oddly, was always adamant thatJesus himself was not a Jew). It is possible that Hitler had by 1941experienced some kind of deconversion or disillusionment withChristianity. Or is the resolution of the contradictions simply thathe was an opportunistic liar whose words cannot be trusted, ineither direction?It could be argued that, despite his own words and those of hisassociates, Hitler was not really religious but just cynically exploitingthe religiosity of his audience. He may have agreed withNapoleon, who said, 'Religion is excellent stuff for keepingcommon people quiet,' and with Seneca the Younger: 'Religion isregarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, andby the rulers as useful.' Nobody could deny that Hitler was capableof such insincerity. If this was his real motive for pretending to bereligious, it serves to remind us that Hitler didn't carry out hisatrocities single-handed. The terrible deeds themselves were carriedout by soldiers and their officers, most of whom were surelyChristian. Indeed, the Christianity of the German people underlies
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276 T H E C; O U D E L U SIGN
Table Talk, in which Hitler expressed virulently anti-Christian views,
as recorded by his secretary. The following all date from 1941:
The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the
coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's
illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The
deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into
the world by Christianity . . .
The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and
serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges:
the pox and Christianity.
When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the
Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from
the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are
immunised against the disease.
Hitler's Table Talk contains more quotations like those, often
equating Christianity with Bolshevism, sometimes drawing an
analogy between Karl Marx and St Paul and never forgetting that
both were Jews (though Hitler, oddly, was always adamant that
Jesus himself was not a Jew). It is possible that Hitler had by 1941
experienced some kind of deconversion or disillusionment with
Christianity. Or is the resolution of the contradictions simply that
he was an opportunistic liar whose words cannot be trusted, in
either direction?
It could be argued that, despite his own words and those of his
associates, Hitler was not really religious but just cynically exploiting
the religiosity of his audience. He may have agreed with
Napoleon, who said, 'Religion is excellent stuff for keeping
common people quiet,' and with Seneca the Younger: 'Religion is
regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and
by the rulers as useful.' Nobody could deny that Hitler was capable
of such insincerity. If this was his real motive for pretending to be
religious, it serves to remind us that Hitler didn't carry out his
atrocities single-handed. The terrible deeds themselves were carried
out by soldiers and their officers, most of whom were surely
Christian. Indeed, the Christianity of the German people underlies
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