Are nazism and communism religions?

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When arguing with Atheists about crimes religion(s) and nazism/communism have committed, you sometimes hear the argument that nazism and communism were not atheistic, but (wordly) religions. So my question now is: In what way can you support or refute this thesis?
 
Nazism and communism are politicol ideologies that spawn from atheistic philosphy.

Not all Nazi’s were atheist. I recall a couple of the people in the Nuremburg trial making confessions before they died.

Adolf Hitler was born Roman Catholic, but during his time in World War I he converted to Atheism.

Stalin was Russian Orthodox, and was at one time studying to be a priest, but later he converted to Atheism.

I have heard rumours that some of the Nazi elite were involved in Satanism. If this is true, I would assume they were not atheists.
 
Not in the classical sense, but they were cults of personality and extreme nationalism, both which have several things in common with religion. On the whole though, no. Nazism in particular was neither an atheist or religious motivated movement - either was used for whatever political goals needed to be accomplished, and the high command was not swayed heavily by either ideology. Stalin was less of an atheist and more of a “kill off the clergy” type of person… the reasoning behind is mostly speculative given the destruction of information during the time.
 
God is/was neither the center of, nor the purpose of that which both nazism and communism purports to be. By definition, in action, they are/were both a-thiestic.

edit-- I forgot to mention- a worldly religion, or one without a god, is a-thiestic.
 
The fear in Germany prior to World War II was the Communists. And prior to World War II, Germany sent men and equipment to fight against the Communists in the Spanish Civil War. The NSDAP, or National Socialist Democratic Workers’ Party, is the full name of the abbreviated NAZI. It was a social and political movement designed to rekindle national pride. It included ceremonies to revive awareness of ancient Germanic peoples and the purity of the Aryan race. I have seen photos of German wartime burials that included crosses and priests. After the Germans attacked Russia, a German propaganda poster showed Christ on the cross and warned the people that the Communists denied this truth. In an area called the Katyn forest, the Russians murdered thousands of Polish officers, soldiers, priests and others. They blamed it on the Germans. The Germans alerted the Red Cross who came to examine the mass grave. Eventually, it was revealed that the Russians were the culprits.

The Russians killed or starved millions of people. Officers who did not obey were shot or sent to labor camps.

To call them religions is not accurate. They were political, social and economic movements.

Peace,
Ed
 
AG1002 said:
When arguing with Atheists about crimes religion(s) and nazism/communism have committed, you sometimes hear the argument that nazism and communism were not atheistic, but (wordly) religions. So my question now is: In what way can you support or refute this thesis?
Click to expand...

STM They are Christian heresies.​

  • Hitler functioned as a “Jesus for Nazis”
  • 1,000-year Reich = Millennial Kingdom
  • Jews = Apocalyptic Enemy - the Nazi equivalent of the Antichrist
  • There were Nazi feasts, to replace the Christian ones
  • Hitler, like Jesus, was “the friend of children” - as many photos of him with members of the Hitler Youth show
  • Like Jesus, Hitler was betrayed by his own
  • Like Jesus, Hitler taught his People
  • Like Jesus, Hitler was imprisoned
  • the German Volk are the People of God, with Hitler as their Prophet & Saviour
  • WW2 was the Holy War against the enemies of the Chosen People
  • Lebensraum, “living room” is a good translation of shalom=salvation=spaciousness
  • So the invasion of Poland & Russia etc., was a “saving act” of God through His Prophet
  • Nazism had its martyrs, such as Horst Wessel.
  • Some of its songs functioned as hymns
  • Like several religions it was a “total system” - this is even more obvious in Communism.
As if that were not enough, it would be possible to see Hitler prophesied in the Psalms. From some POVs, he would make a very credible Messiah-King. But - not from a Christian POV. One web-page calls Hitler an “inverted Saint”, which IMO is an excellent description. Nazism as inverted Judaism ?

For Material on Nazi Ceremonies - see:
It’s a very informative page - and a long, but very revealing one. The attitudes in this:
speak volumes. The writers express a devotion to Hitler which would be excessive if directed to the Church’s Saints:
  • You are the Führer, without commanding it. You live and are the law. You are love and strength. My heart is full of thoughts about you this day, too full to express the wishes of many and their thanks to you.
and
  • All I can say is about what the Führer means to me is this: I want to love him because he is Germany.
and
  • The change from a follower to a personal and deep relationship with the Führer really came only after 1933. Today, he is like a father to me.
Germany, to judge from the second quotation, would seem to be the Mystical Body of Hitler. If these are not religious expressions, what are they to be called ?

Nazism can usefully be viewed as showing us what the Church could become (but for the grace of God) - because both are forms of the Kingdom of God; as was Soviet Communism; and are in varying degrees corrupt.
 
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