# Religion

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion/99244>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 20, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion/99244 "2002-03-20T18:45:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion/99244/61 "2002-03-25T20:14:25Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by scotth \*  
> \*\*I made my statement to make a different point entirely.
> 
> If they point out that it is convenient by me to classify those guys as assholes for the main motivation for what they did. I point out that I did the same thing for Hitler as well. I did not try to saddle the religious camp with the crimes of Hitler just because he happened to be religious. “Hitler was a Nazi shithead as many important historians have pointed out.” (10 points for recognizing that exact quote) His religious beliefs were incidental. That is, they were not his motivation. \*\*

Well first of all, it’s questionable whether Hitler was truly religious or not. Master Cecil himself [pointed this out](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlerchristian.html).

And second, while you did claim that Hitler’s motives were non-religious, this was only after we had pointed out the fallacy of accusing various forms of suffering to religion, while claiming that Lenin, Pol Pot and company were mere “assholes,” for which atheism played no role in their persecutions. Now I won’t claim that you were necessarily dishonest in reporting your assessment of Hitler’s motives; however, it is clear that Hitler’s alleged motivations only came up after the fact.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion/99244.md?page=3)