So for the people here who don't know what this is about: Super conservative Christians like to claim that without God, there can be no morals because God told us what's right or wrong. They deny the intrinsic morals we humans have. This image turns that BS argument on it's head.
No, what it shows is that people who call themselves Christians can be caught up in evil things, same as everyone else. To your point, humanity has some intrinsic moral understanding, certainly heavily configured by the surrounding society, for the survival of society. It's not triggered necessarily by faith in some deity. Everyone is capable of good. Everyone is capable of evil.
If you want to take it a step farther and argue with someone pushing the "only Christians have a sense of morals" stupidity on their own turf, just point out that according to the Bible, we are made in God's image, and since he has a sense of good and evil, therefore so do we. Even an evolution loving, abortion having, pot smoking, illegal immigrant might technically be created in God's image. They have morals, and can do good or evil things.
just point out that according to the Bible, we are made in God’s image, and since he has a sense of good and evil, therefore so do we.
I think in Christian lore, that's supposed to be the role of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 2–3). It's fruits are forbidden. Serpent, original sin.
Bottom line it does not change your argument, since all humans after that point in the story have that ability. Just the reason is different.
No it doesn't. All this image is implying is that Christians can be immoral. It says absolutely nothing about the idea that an objective morality needs an external source. This is claimed (incorrectly I would argue) by many atheist philosophers as well, so it's not just "Super conservative Christians" that say it.
If the image was intended to do what you said then it utterly failed.
When was a sovereignty of the Third Reich in question? Hitler and the NSDAP took power under legal means and then transformed into a dictatorship. They would have been recognized when they came to power.
There's a book about it called Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, and how the church used The Nazis and Holocaust to further their power in Europe
I was about to question this picture, because, depending on the time it was taken, it might as well been very likely, that these children were raised as nazis in nazi Germany and not have been Christians at any point in their life. .
Well the reverse image search told me it's from a nazis rally in 1930.. Wow.
I'd still say, that this is not a good atheist meme. It'd go down better with their parents, waving flags at the same rally.
I come from a region of germany with a lot of nazis and you can put almost anyone in that region into 4 categories:
Nazis, right wing, ...
LGBTQ, left wing, ...
Christians
People who dont care
With Christians I mean not every christian, but people who really live that out 100%.
Depending on the region this can have different consequences.
In my region the church helped refugees and at least cares a little bit about the environment.
While this isn't the case everywhere and so on, the Christians are a group seperate to the nazis in my region.
And since there are way too many nazis in my region, I will not make myself the Christians as enemys.
"Not Nazi" has to be enough in these circumstances.
There are many, many, propaganda pieces that prove otherwise, starting with the co-opting of the Iron Cross, not to mention all the early Nazi propaganda pamphlets, regardless of what the weirdo fringe of the Thule society wanted once they were in power.
That said, it's not like the meme is saying it wouldn't be the same shit in an alternate timeline where Martel lost at Tours, or whatever, just a reminder that most "Christians" view it solely as a tribal identity and not a moral philosophy.
If Nazism grew in a Christian monoculture, where did all the Jews come from?
For the sake of debate, please refrain from personal attacks. We don't have to agree, but can we do so in a civil manner?
I get your point: Assuming Nazi Germany was nothing but Christian, the picture would be correct.
But that was not the case. Some were even atheists! And some Christians were some of the fiercest resistance fighters.
I also think it's dishonest to reduce the picture to just that. It's also an example of connecting your political enemy to some monstrosity in an undifferentiated way, just like the Nazis did.
Mao's failures were issues of idiocy and incompetence, not wanting to exterminate groups of people he didn't like based on their race. If mao was more competent he wouldn't have been as fucking awful (though still quite bad). If Hitler was more competent we'd have even more victims of the Holocaust.