reply to post by Kayzar
I always think, when I hear Hitler/Stalin being mentioned by Christians, that it poses more of a problem for them than it does for me. Because it
brings up the problem of evil - big time!
Why on earth did their god not do something about Hitler & Stalin? Perhaps they don't want to say that their god is an out and out killer (despite
the OT) but God could have made Hitler mute. Imagine - no rallies, no speeches, none of that. Game over for old Adolf.
I watched a programme on Discovery not long ago, where they replicated the attempt to blow Hitler up. Apparently they only had one charge in the
suitcase because a second one was faulty. When they tried it with two, it blew the dummy's legs off. Also, some gadgie moved the suitcase to the
other side of the table leg, which was some kind of old oak, & tough as hell. If that boy hadn't done that, if for example the all powerful god the
christians believe in made that boy want to take a pee at that specific moment, so that bomb laden suitcase was left where it had been placed ...
bango, end of Hitler, it would have blown his pins clean off. Why didn't god do either of those things, and put an end to WWII?
I mean, sorting a faulty electrical circuit or making someone want to pee, that's within the power of the creator of the universe, surely?
The usual response you hear to the problem of evil is what Christians call the unknown purpose defence - it's all part of God's unknown plan - If a
Christian wants to mention Hitler & Stalin it would be worth asking him or her what their response to the problem of evil is - if that's the only
response they have, then they're going to be forced to admit that Hitler & Stalin were doing God's will.
Atheists of course have nothing to explain: sh!t happens. Naturally, the faith-heads can always squirm out of it, even natural disasters, e.g. God is
testing our faith, all will be compensated in heaven, it's punishment for sin, etc, but nevertheless the problem of terrible things befalling
innocent people gives them pause.
Even if Stalin had been a complete atheist, and even if he was supported only by other atheists, that wouldn't prove that he and his supporters were
motivated by atheism.
I think this just shows how religious people will believe anything, if you tell them your doing gods work. It doesn't really matter too much what he
was, I think it matters more who the people who supported him and liked his vision were.
They can argue all they want that Hitler was an atheist, but it was because of the religious that he got power. Even if he didn't believe any of the
sh!t he said about god, he knew it would work on them.
How many atheists would vote for me, if I was running for president and promised you an atheistic society but we had to kill all the jews and
christians first? None would.