The Pope - The Nazis - The Atheists

The Pope flew into England this past week and dusted up a storm of controversy.  Upon landing, His Holiness spoke to a gathered crowd and proceeded to blame atheists and secularists for Nazis and the other atrocities of the 20th century.  

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live,

We have seen this before- anti-evolutionists love to link Darwin's Natural Selection with Hitler's Holocaust.  While I disagree with the atheistic position on God, we don't have to blame them for all of the evil in the world, especially when ample evidence exists of Hitler's use of religious language to encourage the deaths of millions of people.


PZ Meyers provided a list of books banned by the Third Reich.  Included in the list: books about evolution and naturalism and books that criticized religion.  Over and over, Hitler emphasized his version of Christianity to justify anti-Semitism- never did he use atheism as an excuse for his atrocities.


Perhaps the most stinging retort of the Pope comes from Richard Dawkins, the famous British Atheist and Scientist.  His speech criticizes the Popes statement on the historical front and the PR front.  He challenges that the Pope chose to attack secularists to divert attention from the sex abuse scandals and other Church problems.


Here is Dawkins at Protest the Pope (below the fold):





Even with all of this evidence against the Pope's absurd position, how can you blame a modern group of people for the past or blame an entire population for the actions of an extremist minority.  We should not blame all Christians for the actions of some Germans, just like we should blame all Muslims for the actions of Al Queda.