The Los Angeles Times, not a paper outwardly friendly to the Church, has commented on the pope’s tour through Scotland: “More than 100,000 well-wishers greeted Benedict as he travelled the streets of Edinburgh in his specially designed Popemobile, with his shoulders wrapped in a green Tartan scarf. Scattered protests made hardly a dent in the larger din of cheers and applause.”
Over at America magazine’s blog, one poster wonders whether the much-heralded protestors are really paper tigers: “According to the website of the British Humanist Association (BHA), its membership in 2010 is 4,100.” Given its underwhelming numbers, why are any of us fretting over its predictable opposition to the Pope? The group is now upset that Benedict criticized atheism, but “even if the Pope had not made reference to atheism and Nazism,” continued the poster, “the BHA would have found something nasty to say. The crowd of 125,000 in Edinburgh is far more eloquent and significant than the mutterings of the BHA.”
September 17th, 2010 | 1:06 pm
Sure, the BHA would have complained about aspects of the Pope’s visit – e.g. that their tax money was being spent on it. But that doesn’t make their complaint about the attempt to tie Naziism to atheism invalid:
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/09/the_popes_extraordinary_chutzp.php
September 17th, 2010 | 9:10 pm
No, what makes any complaint invalid is that Nazis did indeed want to eradicate God.
September 17th, 2010 | 10:54 pm
Mary, your support for that statement is… what? You are aware that Hitler outlawed atheist and “freethought” organizations, right?
There’s a pretty good case to be made the other way…
September 18th, 2010 | 10:40 am
Darn it, wrong URL. See here for some illuminating quotes: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/list_of_hitler_quotes_in_honor.php
September 18th, 2010 | 6:36 pm
Dear Ray
re yr comment 17th
Doesn’t follow.
The more totalitarian you are, the less you tolerate far or near.
Bolchevism and the left SRs
Stalinism and trots…..
yes, personally, hitler’s was some weirdo mix of a deity like Thor and come all ye wiccanites
There’s one round the block from you.But will he get power? If all else is swept away, maybe.
Check inflence Social darwinism etc on German intellectual /elite climate from mid 19th etc on..
September 18th, 2010 | 11:24 pm
“Social Darwinism”? Eh, it was an element, but not important relative to other things, like the anti-Semitism that had been all around Germany for centuries, and Hitler himself was a creationist. He specifically argued that the races had been created separately.
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