lil_shepherd

I think Ratzinger has a very selective memory where his Nazi past is concerned . . .

Oh, fucking hell, of course he wasn't... this is up there with Darwin's "deathbed conversion" and Harry Potter "uses real witches' spells".

There's a lot of stupidity out there...

He's just trying to persuade the masses that he's not a Nazi. And failing. Badly.

What Hitler actually believed is a difficult question, since everything he said publicly was for propaganda purposes. I'm not sure he was even capable of holding an actual philosophical view of any kind.

Perhaps not - I need to find my references - but I am pretty sure there is no evidence that he ever believed Himmler's dotty Occult ideas, and there is certainly no valid evidence that he was an atheist - though he possibly believed that he and the German people were the chosen of God. Most arguments against him being a Christian of a sort are based on a "No True Scotsman" fallacy.

Anyhow, be that as it may, the bulk of his soldier and citizens were either Christian or Lutheran.

Do you mean "Catholic or Lutheran"?

Ulp!

I can't have been awake. Thank you for pointing up the mistake.

Catholic, Catholic. Silly me. It's only the Catholics who think they comprise the whole of Christianity.

I am absolutely sick of being told that I have to respect the Pope and his religious views, whilst he goes around calling me a Nazi.

Respect the Pope! He has to earn my respect and he hasn't come close to doing any such thing. Desmond Tutu, now...