many, and they will be dead men WITHOUT MERCY! WE have the moral right, we had the duty to our people to do it, to kill this people who wanted to kill us, but we do not have the right to enrich ourselves with even one cigarette with anything. That [right] we do not have. Because at the end of this, we don't want, because we exterminated the bacillus, to become sick and die from the same bacillus.

I will never see it happen, that even one bit of putrefaction comes in contact with us, or takes root in us..But altogether we can say: We have carried out this most difficult task for the love of our people. And we have taken on no defect within us, in our soul, or in our character." (www.holocaust-history.org/him mler-poznan/speech-text.shtml)

Kind of stirring, isn't it? Ethical atheists everywhere, (including of course Christopher Hitchens), can take great comfort in the fact that Himmler did not ignore his Darwinian gift of a genetically encoded Golden Rule, even as he was slaughtering millions of people. He was very careful to remain decent, not to forget the love of his people, and he and his SS colleagues scrupulously avoided taking on defects in their soul or character. If you look in The Guinness Book of World Records under The most insignificant, hollow, meaningless statement made by a well known Atheist author, you will see the following: The so called Golden Rule is innate in us.

"The significance of the inborn moral compass

I, as a believer can find it very significant that Himmler felt the need to morally justify his actions. This is because I believe that God has implanted an innate moral sense in the soul of every human being. Even a Himmler could not totally escape this inner voice. From the viewpoint of the atheist however, his speech only underscores how hollow and insignificant this inborn moral compass is, no matter what it's chemical, genetic, or evolutionary source. It will obviously lead us wherever we subjectively want it to take us; including morally justified mass murder, committed for the noblest of reasons. If this inner voice can produce a Himmler and Stalin on the one hand, and a humanist atheist on the other hand, what difference does it really make? Both feel just as strongly that they are justified in their actions. I would even take it a step further. In the atheist worldview, it would be quite reasonable to conclude, that the whole purpose of our evolved inborn moral compass is to give us the ability to justify, and feel good about any system of values we choose to follow, no matter what it may be!"

Learn more about this author, Moshe Averick.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• ...
• 10
• 11
• 12

---

Add your voice

Know something about Why Atheism is wrong?
We want to hear your view. Write now!