Comment

Comment by Joseph P on April 8, 2012 at 5:48pm

Joseph. Hitler was a Christian but also a Darwinist (call it evolutionist if you like) which is where he got his weird ideas about belonging to a super race and trying to move the process along by eliminating what he felt were the inferior. He was also a vegetarian which just may have been the real problem.

As I'm sure others have already said (I'm commenting as I read through the backlog), Hitler was a Creationist, not a Darwinist.  He got his ideas from the Bible and from Martin Luther, not Evolution.

You're buying into the Creationist propaganda.  He was their boy, not ours.  He said so in his own book.  Read it, rather than listening to what the fundies say about him.

I'd also like to see your connection between his vegetarianism and his actions and politics.

 

I do believe that humans evolve. The brains must function differently to accommodate the evolution of speech for example and I do believe that the seed that sparked the big bang came from somewhere. What is wrong with the thinking there?

What's wrong is that you're blindly asserting something without evidence, just like religion does.  You should go read up on what the cosmologists are saying, not the religionists.

Hawking's latest book is a good place to start.  I also recommend 'A Universe from Nothing', by Lawrence M. Krauss.

 

So what in your opinion should a person say to indicate that he was a free thinker?

It's not what you say.  It's what you do.  A freethinker looks to science and evidence, rather than dogma and wishful thinking.

Comment by Rudy V Kiist on April 8, 2012 at 5:46pm

Thank you Susan...I was just about to jump in and say pretty much that.

Btw, shouldn't this be on a "discussion board"? Although I'm not sure what the topic really is. I'm thinking maybe a misunderstanding of evolution was the original topic?

Comment by Susan Stanko on April 8, 2012 at 4:56pm

How does  Claudiu's post confuse you?  Is because it isn't perfect?  I understood it just fine.

I just read your profile.  You are one of those idealists fresh out of college who think you know better than everybody else, right?  Why jump down Denise's throat?  All it does is make you look like an ass. 

Comment by Wyatt on April 8, 2012 at 4:41pm

Note, we should never turn a blind eye to the truth.  We must examine the facts.  If we have overwhelming evidence to believe something is true, we must not be afraid of stridency in spreading the word.  However, the private religious beliefs of historical figures are difficult to substantiate.  In many cases, all we have to go on are ambiguous public statements, secondhand accounts, and rumors.   We can speculate.  But the record of a person's actions is more substantive.  And it is pressing that we look around the world today and see how organized religion, among other things, has sought to undermine our education system, discourage rational thinking, and impose primitive and unconscionable doctrine on modern society.

Comment by David Philip Norris on April 8, 2012 at 4:31pm

Joan: Nonsense! You're never "too old" for anything of the intellectual variety. :-D

Comment by Joan Denoo on April 8, 2012 at 4:24pm

@ John D Oh! that is why I couldn't understand him. I'm too old to try again. 

Comment by David Philip Norris on April 8, 2012 at 4:10pm

John D: Agreed!!

Comment by Claudiu Mihael Terenche on April 8, 2012 at 3:59pm

My grammar is not relevant! It seems like you never read Nietzsche.

Comment by Wyatt on April 8, 2012 at 3:57pm

I detect a postmodernist lurking somewhere here...  At any rate, I think the Hitler issue is probably a bit of a red herring.  Let's keep in mind that being an atheist simply means lack of belief in a god or gods.  It should be distinguished from positive disbelief in god/gods.  There is no logical reason to assume that atheism necessarily has any bearing on one's moral character.  The real issue seems to me that organized religions tend to discourage critical thinking and natural inquisitiveness by conditioning children to believe improbable things unquestioningly, to to have "faith" rather than examining the evidence.  I think we can all agree that evidence-based reality is preferable to unquestioning faith in an ancient and primitive holy text.

Comment by Claudiu Mihael Terenche on April 8, 2012 at 3:50pm

David Philip Norris 

Hitler didn't used Nietzschean philosophy. Do not mistake arianism with ideology of Superhuman. Those are two different things. Do you really read Nietzsche that you come with that conclusion, or you heard from others and repeated by yourself?

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