Hitler

Lately a lot of people are invoking the name of Adolf Hitler to support their various arguments. The fundamentalists claim he was an atheist and therefore that justifies their hatred of atheists and atheists say he was a christian and therefore that somehow reflects badly on the christians. Personally I think such arguments are pointless. The man was a nutcase. A crazy nutcase is a cracy nutcase regardless of their religious affiliation, I just think there are more christian nutcases than there are atheist ones. I have no proof of that offhand it's just my unsubstantiated belief based on personal experience.

I actually DO think Adolf WAS an atheist. However he was an atheist who recognized the power of religion and the willingness of the religious to be led and he was willing to use that knowledge to further his own ends. I think that if you are able to maintain a high degree of faith in the existance of a god contrary to the absense of any sort of fact in such existance, then you are a person who is willing to accept things that you are told by people in a position of authority over you with varying degrees of critical suspicious thought. You either do not have the time nor inclination to do your own research on issues and accept whatever you are fed ...either by people like Hitler or the News media, or your preacher or your parents ... Critical thought requires effort.

Which brings me to ....

Fred Phelps. He claims to be a christian. He preaches hate. Hitler claimed to be a christian and yet he preached hate. Now I am not saying that all religious folks are akin to Hitler but I AM saying Phelps is. I don't think for one minute that Phelps is a christian. He is a slime oozing out of a cesspool. He is pure unadulterated evil. If I believed in Satan I would say Phelps is the epitomy of him.

If you don't know who Phelps is do a google search. I will NOT link to any of his sites. But If you are so inclined apparently he has been invited to a debate sponsored by a pro gay group in the US. I don't expect much good to come out of it except for a shout fest but I do applaude the effort for dialogue. It's just that Fred in one of the of the people with authority I refered to above who is capable of leading his mindless suplicants to embrace hate and violence in the name of religion. THESE are people I despise, for they are neither moral nor just.

The story refering to the debate can be found here I hope they keep us updated on exactly how the debate went. A transcript would be nice.

IA