Bitcoin Forum
May 03, 2024, 10:41:54 AM *
News: Latest Bitcoin Core release: 27.0 [Torrent]
 
  Home Help Search Login Register More  
  Show Posts
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 [52] 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 ... 115 »
1021  Economy / Speculation / Re: [April iamnotback] Bitcoin will be $800 in one month! on: May 11, 2017, 11:23:21 AM
I have probably spent more time publically arguing with iamnotback on various issues then anyone else on this forum.

He gives predictions and arguments based on what he actually believes and likely lost out on substantial gains by following his own advice on this one.

He is intelligent, eccentric, and insightful. He is sometimes brilliant and sometimes stubbornly and mulishly wrong.

He got this call wrong. He has gotten others correct in the past but if he shared a prediction he genuinely believed it. Let's not attack people for incorrectly predicting the future.

The key here is to realize that there is no substitute for individual critical thinking. Relying on others to think for you or blindly accepting their instructions is a recipe for poverty.
1022  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 11, 2017, 02:03:46 AM


Train Passengers On Their Way To Work Join In Spontaneous Song

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctzp0dp9uc

Quote
The intent behind this was to allow people to feel recognised for the work they do and to demonstrate how simple it can be to uplift each other when we come together through positive shared experience. It can be easy to feel unappreciated, disconnected and isolated from our community in a world that constantly desires exponential growth, busy-ness and expansion. Thankfully, we’ve discovered our shared humanity exists just cm’s beneath the surface of a seemingly ghost like public places. We decided to create this moment as a humanitarian check-point; a brief moment in time to see that beyond our differences there is love and humanity.

What happens next is quite incredible to say the least. Pete hands out the lyrics to the song whilst a young Ukulele player brings out a vintage uke and starts to hum


1023  Other / Politics & Society / Re: The problem with atheism. on: May 10, 2017, 08:37:39 PM

Why evolution is selecting religious genes?  I don't know.  The environment, culture and/or education is affecting the fertility rates.

How you jump from that to proof of God is beyond me.  It is just another of your assertions.

What is the fertility rate of people in the Amazon jungle? Until 1970 it was 5 children per woman.  They never heard of your 'Gods'.


Why evolution is selecting religious genes?  I addressed this question in depth in the Health and Religion thread.
1024  Economy / Speculation / Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion on: May 10, 2017, 06:28:50 PM
Flood.

Jokes aside pretty much none, I have mine laminated buried under my favorite apple tree.

Do you own said tree? Some weirdo might take a fancy to it and decide to steal it during the night. Your wallet might be unearthed during the theft.

It is a mistake to publicly share details like this. It increases the chance of theft.
1025  Economy / Economics / Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion on: May 10, 2017, 03:37:14 AM
Hello everyone,
I just joined this wonderful forum because I found the conversations are very interesting. I have been studying BTC for quite a while and finding the latest price increase is simply nuts! Why is it going up so much so fast? Anyone got a sensible answer?

Think of it like a tech stock.

Current Market Cap (billion USD)

Twitter         13.4

Snapchat      26.4

Bitcoin           28.7

Yahoo          47.7

Facebook      438.5

Market has decided Bitcoin is no longer equals a Twitter. Now it is about a Snapchat in value.

Given the underlying potential of the technology it is entirely possible that some large institutional investors have decided that it may be worth a Yahoo which if true bodes well for gains in the future.   Grin

1026  Economy / Economics / Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion on: May 10, 2017, 02:47:40 AM
...

EDIT: But I will give credit where credit is due: Bitcoin has been on a complete tear recently, gold has gone down slightly.

*  *  *

Yes I regret putting some money into gold over the last year. It slowed my BTC accumulation and as a result I have only hit 86% of my goal holdings at an overall higher cost then planned.

Now I have to decide if I want to pay much more for that last 14% or decide to stop at a lower amount of BTC.

1027  Economy / Speculation / Re: Bitcoin hits $1,600 and one investor says it could rally to $4,000 in few months on: May 10, 2017, 02:31:31 AM
Hello everyone,
I just joined this wonderful forum because I found the conversations are very interesting. I have been studying BTC for quite a while and finding the latest price increase is simply nuts! Why is it going up so much so fast? Anyone got a sensible answer?

Think of it like a tech stock.

Current Market Cap (billion USD)

Twitter         13.4

Snapchat      26.4

Bitcoin           28.7

Yahoo          47.7

Facebook      438.5

Market has decided Bitcoin is no longer equals a Twitter. Now it is about a Snapchat in value.

Given the underlying potential of the technology it is entirely possible that some large institutional investors have decided that it may be worth a Yahoo which if true bodes well for gains in the future.   Grin



1028  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 06, 2017, 08:56:00 PM
...
I will concede that a level of truth does occur in religion, but only to the individual and/or a core group of people with the same ideology. This does not make it factual for everyone.
...

Every individual's or groups subjective truth is constantly tested against the actual Truth of existence. Subjective truth is guaranteed to be incomplete no matter who you are. As BADdecker noted above above.

^^^^^ Religion is NOT completely truth and fact. Why not? Because people don't really understand complete truth, no matter who they are.

We do not fully understand Truth but we can observe how well our beliefs serve us across time and space.

What if absence of faith is a sign of weakness putting its adherents at vast disadvantage?

Mr. Kaufmann, author of the article is professor of politology at University of London. Hardly someone we could call religious fundamentalist.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/


"As Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That’s a ‘fertility gap’ of 41 per cent. Given that about 80 per cent of people with an identifiable party preference grow up to vote the same way as their parents, this gap translates into lots more little Republicans than little Democrats to vote in future elections."

An interesting and informative article thanks for sharing.

As an aside some history about the Democratic Party. In 2012 they removed all references to God from their party platform. When they realized this was bad politics they attempted to put a reference to God back in. This required a clear two thirds majority vote. Here is a YouTube video of that vote which had to be called three times.

https://youtu.be/t8BwqzzqcDs
1029  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 04, 2017, 08:47:47 PM
Trump: ‘Freedom Is Not a Gift From Government — Freedom Is a Gift From God’
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/05/04/trump-freedom-not-gift-government-freedom-gift-god/
Quote from: Pam Key
Thursday in the Rose Garden at the White House, President Donald Trump declared freedom to be “a gift from God” before signing an executive order to protect the tax-exempt status of churches and religious groups if they engaged in politics.

Trump said, “We remember this eternal truth. Freedom is not a gift from government. Freedom is a gift from God. It was Thomas Jefferson who said the God who gave us life gave us liberty. Our Founding Fathers believed that religious liberty was so fundamental that they enshrined it in the very First Amendment of our great beloved Constitution.”
1030  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 04, 2017, 06:03:30 PM
I figured you to be more intelligent that that.

...
Interesting how you take the stance against me, yet have never mentioned the same context when BADecker makes comments about people belonging in mental institutions (funny farm) and having low intelligence.

CoinCube, can I suggest you take a long hard critical look at the way in which BADecker has argued his point, and the language with which he treats others to validate his point before defending him with your righteous comments.


You again misunderstand me stats. I am not defending BADecker he is entirely capable of defending himself.

The reality is I do challenge BADecker when I disagree with what he says. In fact I have done so in this very thread.

What I am doing here is defending BADecker's correct conclusions. The truth of these conclusions rest on their own merit regardless of whatever BADecker has or has not said in the past.

Religion is all faith.... no truth!

As an aside I also challenge this statement of yours as false. However, unlike the simple logical fallacy above this is a deeper point of contention. If you are interested in why this statement is false I would direct you to the following link.

Debate on Nihilism
1031  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 04, 2017, 04:05:37 PM
Not what his words say.

Sorry try again.

I do find it funny how you understand the riddle language of BADecker.

I figured you to be more intelligent that that.

Ok I disagree but his words are immediately up thread so we can let people make their own determinations.

In regards to insults and insuinations of low intelligence. Here is a link describing your logical fallacy. Avoiding such errors will allow you to make improved arguments in the future.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem

1032  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 04, 2017, 12:59:01 PM

People who believe that science theory is truth, have a science religion going for themselves.

Nobody knows that science theory is factual. Why not? If they knew, it would not be theory, but science law.

When they believe in something that they do not know is truth and fact, they have religion.

Cool

Finally, you agree that religion isn't truth and fact.

Well done little fella, you are growing up!

Religion is all faith.... no truth!

Stats you are not understanding what BADecker is saying here. He is simply highlighting the fact that many of the worshippers of "Science" with a capital S are members of a religion even if they do not acknowledge it.

Here is an article from Dr. Jeremy Samuel Faust is an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston that highlights this issues.

Hive-Mind Worship Of "Science" At The March For Science
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/04/the_march_for_science_was_eerily_religious.html
Quote
Hundreds of thousands of self-professed science supporters turned out to over 600 iterations of the March for Science around the world this weekend. Thanks to the app Periscope, I attended half a dozen of them from the comfort of my apartment, thereby assiduously minimizing my carbon footprint.

Mainly, these marches appeared to be a pleasant excuse for liberals to write some really bad (and, OK, some truly superb) puns, and put them on cardboard signs. There were also some nicely stated slogans that roused support for important concepts such as reason and data and many that decried the defunding of scientific research and ignorance-driven policy.

But here’s the problem: Little of what I observed dissuades me from my baseline belief that, even among the sanctimonious elite who want to own science (and pwn anyone who questions it), most people have no idea how science actually works. The scientific method itself is already under constant attack from within the scientific community itself and is ceaselessly undermined by its so-called supporters, including during marches like those on Saturday. In the long run, such demonstrations will do little to resolve the myriad problems science faces and instead could continue to undermine our efforts to use science accurately and productively.

Let’s start with my contention that most “pro-science” demonstrators have no idea what they were demonstrating about. Being “pro-science” has become a bizarre cultural phenomenon in which liberals (and other members of the cultural elite) engage in public displays of self-reckoned intelligence as a kind of performance art, while demonstrating zero evidence to justify it. On any given day, many of my most “woke” friends are quick to post and retweet viral content about the latest on what Science (and I’m capitalizing this on purpose) “says,” or what some studies “prove.” But on closer look, much of what gets shared and bandied about is sheer bullshit and is diagnostic of one thing only: The state of science (and science literacy) in this country, and most of the planet for that matter, is woefully bad.

For example, the blog IFLScience (IFL stands for “I f---ing love”) seems singularly committed to undermining legitimately good science half the time, while promoting it the other half—which, scientifically speaking, is a problem. Here’s a neat one that relays news about a study that suggested that beer hops may protect against liver disease. I’ll be sure to mention that to the next alcoholic with hepatitis and cirrhosis that I treat. To date that article has been shared 41,600 times. Very few of those readers, I should mention, were mice, though the research was carried out in, you guessed it, mice. (And of course, this type of coverage is not refined to cleverly named blogs.)

That’s not to say plans to cut back funding for research are wise (though so far most of those plans seem contained to a meaningless budget proposal). Nor should we tolerate it when our policies are poised to undercut genuine scientific expertise for politically expedient purposes...

But there is very little indication that what happened on Saturday will counter these misconceptions. Instead, the march revealed the glaring dissonance of opposing that trough of ignorance by instead accepting a cringe-worthy hive-mind mentality that celebrates Science as a vague but wonderful entity, what Richard Feynman called “cargo cult science.” There was an uncomfortable dronelike fealty to the concept—an oxymoronic faith that information presented and packaged to us as Science need not be further scrutinized before being smugly celebrated en masse. That is not intellectually rigorous thought—instead, it’s another kind of religion, and it is perhaps as terrifying as the thing it is trying to fight.

Let’s face it: People like science when it supports their views. I see this every day. When patients ask me for antibiotics to treat their common colds, I tell them that decades of science and research, let alone a basic understanding of microbiology, shows that antibiotics don’t work for cold viruses. Trust me, people don’t care. They have gotten antibiotics for their colds in the past, and, lo, they got better. (The human immune system, while a bit slower and clunkier than we’d like it to be, never seems to get the credit it deserves in these little anecdotal stories.) Who needs science when you have something mightier—personal experience?

Sadly this worship of "Science" is sometimes accompanied by a rejection of faith and God. This replaces one religion with a far inferior substitute and is probably very bad for your health.

The main propose of this thread is to highlight what science (with a lower case s) tells us about the relationship between health and religion.
1033  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Do you believe in god? on: May 04, 2017, 02:55:03 AM
AFnewbie,

yes, as you can see with your own eyes I can not only read but write aswell.

Did my mention of "autists" offend you so much? Praying wont cure your condition, but neither will hatred of people, who came here to talk. Not shout insults. Learn the difference.

 Cheesy

That was pretty funny.

1034  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 02, 2017, 09:03:36 PM
Coincube, I just wanted to thank you for all the interesting information, and the quotes and sources, that you have posted throughout this thread and others. Thanks.

Cool

My pleasure. I started this thread to highlight the interplay between health and religion especially the empiric studies on this issue as until recently I was unaware of this link.

I have found the data on the topic to be substantial convincing and interesting and I am happy that others have found it interesting as well.
1035  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: May 01, 2017, 12:40:57 PM
China Experiencing an 'Explosion of Faith', Says Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author
http://www.gospelherald.com/articles/70279/20170428/china-experiencing-explosion-faith-pulitzer-prize-winning-author.htm
Quote from: LEAH MARIEANN KLETT
Despite increasing persecution, China is in the grip of "one of the world's great spiritual revivals" that shows no signs of slowing down, says a Pulitzer-prize winning author.

In an op-ed for The Atlantic, Ian Johnson contends that China is experiencing an "explosion of faith."

"The decades of anti-religious campaigns that followed the 1949 communist takeover are giving way to a spiritual transformation-and among the fastest-growing drivers of that transformation are unregistered churches," the author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao writes.

These unregistered churches, he says, have "become surprisingly well-organized, meeting very openly and often counting hundreds of congregants."

"They've helped the number of Protestants soar from about one million when the communists took power to at least 60 million today," he writes.

Johnson, who spent six years exploring the "values and faiths of today's China", explains that the persecution China's Christians experience at the hands of the Communist government hasn't deterred church growth.

"Any casual visitor to the country can tell you that the number of churches, mosques, and temples has soared in recent years, and that many of them are full," Johnson writes.

"While problems abound, the space for religious expression has grown rapidly, and Chinese believers eagerly grab it as they search for new ideas and values to underpin a society that long ago discarded traditional morality."

In a separate interview, Johnson explained that Christianity is growing in the country because people are looking for new moral guideposts or "some sort of moral compass to organize society.

"So they are turning to religion as a source of values to help reorganize society," he said. "Hundreds of millions of Chinese are consumed with doubt about their society and turning to religion and faith for answers that they do not find in the radically secular world constructed around them."


Johnson's findings echo those of Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule. Last year, Yang told The Telegraph that the number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily, that by 2030, it could have more churchgoers than America.

Similarly, a 2016 report from persecution watchdog ChinaAid revealed that a total of 20,000 Chinese Christians suffered religious persecution in 2015 - but Christianity continues to grow at a dramatic rate.

"In 2015, ChinaAid documented 634 cases of persecution in which 19,426 religious practitioners were persecuted, representing an 8.62 percent increase from 2014's 17,884 religious practitioners persecuted," reads the "2015 Annual Report Chinese Government Persecution of Christians and Churches in China."

However, in response to this persecution, Christians fasted, prayed and organized protests, and the "steadfast response of these churches spread to other places, producing widespread public opposition to the government's brutal cross demolitions."
In addition, the faith of many church members was strengthened by the victories of human rights lawyers who took to court Christian cases in the form of civil law, administrative law, and property rights law, the report notes.

Because of this, ChinaAid is optimistic that the Christian faith will eventually overcome all obstacles.
"Despite the worsening situation of religious freedom in China in the last decade, China Aid sees great hope in the fast growth of the house church movement across China and firmly believes that God's love and justice will eventually cover the vast expanse of this nation," concludes the report.
1036  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: April 30, 2017, 01:28:49 AM
Faith and Future

In my opinion, all these wars of religions and ideologies will never lead to peace and understanding of each other. This is a time bomb that can destroy the world.

Too much religion isn't the problem. There is no way to get away from religion. The closest we can come to getting away from religion (outside of death) is going to sleep. Otherwise we actively live our religion.
...
Religion is the thing that shows us how to live good lives with each other on earth, and, if one has the correct religion, the way to everlasting life.

Cool

For those that like science fiction I recently read the Doom Star Series by Vaughn Hepner. It is interesting social commentary underneath a good story.
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Soldier-Doom-Book-ebook/dp/B003SNJVH4

It envisions a dystopian future where humanity has terraformed and spread throughout the solar system and traditional religion appears to have has died out or been suppressed.

Humanity has splintered into various ideological factions. Earth is under the control of a stifling planet wide socialism. Mars and Venus are under the control of genetically engineered super humans who believe their superiority gives them the right to rule. Jupiter is controlled by philosopher kings who value only logic. Total laissez-faire capitalism dominates the outer planets and on the edges of the solar system a group seeks to create the ultimate controllable soldier by mixing man and machine.

As the story progress the various groups compete for dominance committing ever more horrific acts of evil that are completely justified by their various philosophies. It is quite clear that in this future humanity is in danger of extinction as the self-inflected horrors worsen and billions start to die.

The series is subtle social commentary the reader slowly realizes that while some ideological groups are better then others they are all pretty bad.

It is a vision of a future without God where religion in the form of various ideological and political constructs is very much alive and well.

Religious/ideological wars certainly have the potential to destroy the world. These conflicts are unavoidable. The question is what can save us? I do not pretend to know the answer with any certainty but here is an answer provided earlier by Miscreanity. I have yet to hear a better one.

What is actually the worst possible outcome is to have one strategy, religion, or culture adopted by everyone.

This is the point I disagree with. I think we both agree that the optimal way to increase degrees of freedom for individuals is to allow and enable instead of controlling. A universal strategy is an essential foundation that enables freedom. Without that, we have the situation that is developing now with varying viewpoints where some sets are progressing toward destruction and others are being dragged into declining entropy. Competition can take place when there is room for growth but on a globally saturated scale, nobody wins.

Reproductive strategy is likely to become essentially irrelevant for humanity, possibly within our lifetimes. It seems inevitable that our existing biological bodies will give way to different forms that will carry us off-planet. At that point, allowing and enabling all individuals to thrive in a constructive environment becomes paramount. What then is the protocol that keeps that freedom from becoming destructive? Of course, my thinking is that the protocol is outlined in the Christian bible.

The following two (relatively) short videos may be of interest regarding previous discussion:
The moral argument for God
Why Does God Allow Evil?


See: The More Rational Model for more.
1037  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: April 29, 2017, 12:25:40 AM

.  
You are looking through the cruel, evil, vile Christianity glasses.  You are projecting....


Sorry I am not Christian so that's impossible try again.

Honestly, as a non Christian non atheist I see very little difference between you and Moloch and those Westboro church members you despise. Two slightly different shades of extremism.
1038  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: April 28, 2017, 11:47:45 PM
A song that highlights the fundamental nature of Christianity.

Ryan Stevenson - The Gospel

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTdFEZhjiko
1039  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: April 28, 2017, 11:45:46 PM
...
Mass Murder?  Please stop this shit.  You have never been to been to Baptist Christian churches.  Checkout Westboro...More guys like them and you would have a mayhem in the US.
Mass murder?  These guys just cannot wait....



The OT is a 'book' from the Bronze Age, NT is a 'book' from the time people where shitting in the bushes, what did you expect?
You would not want be near Jesus for one reason, he probably stunk and had a bad breath.

Like I said, it is irrelevant today.  All of it is nonsense written to manage the primitive people.

Ah I understand now af_newbie. Your are showing us that you are kin to those in the Westboro group. That 'church' spews forth hatred against Jews, Muslims, gays and others pretend their beliefs somehow justify this.

Their mirror image are atheist who spew similar filth and likewise pretend to justify it. The only difference seems to be the target of the hate.

Are you like our friend Moloch who chooses to name himself after the pagan god of burning children alive and calls for the killing of all religious people?

You can't... just kill everyone who believes in any religion... they'll go to heaven, and the world will be much better without religion

FYI the name "Westboro Atheist Group" is still available if the two of you want to grab it.
1040  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Health and Religion on: April 27, 2017, 04:02:08 PM
Hitler told a lot of lies. Here are some more.

A 1942 List of Hitler’s Lies
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2016/05/18/a_list_of_hitler_s_lies_compiled_by_the_off

He typically lied to put an enemy at ease to make them easier to destroy later. This is an obvious part of the historical record and he did this multiple time with great success. Notice the quote from Hitler was from 1928 before he had consolidated power.





Hitler as Christian? That is somewhat comical considering that Hitlers plan was to destroy Christianity.

The Case Against the Nazis; How Hitler's Forces Planned To Destroy German Christianity
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/13/weekinreview/word-for-word-case-against-nazis-hitler-s-forces-planned-destroy-german.html?pagewanted=all

Quote
''The Persecution of the Christian Churches,'' summarizes the Nazi plan to subvert and destroy German Christianity, which it calls ''an integral part of the National Socialist scheme of world conquest.''

In the 1920's, as they battled for power, the Nazis realized that the churches in overwhelmingly Christian Germany needed to be neutralized before they would get anywhere. Two-thirds of German Christians were Protestants, belonging to one of 28 regional factions of the German Evangelical Church. Most of the rest were Roman Catholics. On one level, the Nazis saw an advantage. In tumultuous post-World War I Germany, the Christian churches ''had long been associated with conservative ways of thought, which meant that they tended to agree with the National Socialists in their authoritarianism, their attacks on Socialism and Communism, and in their campaign against the Versailles treaty'' that had ended World War I with a bitterly resentful Germany.

But there was a dilemma for Hitler. While conservatives, the Christian churches ''could not be reconciled with the principle of racism, with a foreign policy of unlimited aggressive warfare, or with a domestic policy involving the complete subservience of Church to State.'' Given that these were the fundamental underpinnings of the Nazi regime, ''conflict was inevitable,'' the summary states. It came, as Nazi power surged in the late 1920's toward national domination in the early 30's.

According to Baldur von Schirach, the Nazi leader of the German youth corps that would later be known as the Hitler Youth, ''the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist movement'' from the beginning, though ''considerations of expedience made it impossible'' for the movement to adopt this radical stance officially until it had consolidated power, the outline says.

Attracted by the strategic value inherent in the churches' ''historic mission of conservative social discipline,'' the Nazis simply lied and made deals with the churches while planning a ''slow and cautious policy of gradual encroachment'' to eliminate Christianity.

The prosecution investigators describe this as a criminal conspiracy. ''This general plan had been established even before the rise of the Nazis to power,'' the outline says. ''It apparently came out of discussions among an inner circle'' comprised of Hitler himself, other top Nazi leaders including the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, and a collection of party enforcers and veteran beer-hall agitators.

Of course, the churches stayed in Hitler's good graces for only as long as the Nazis considered their cooperation expedient. Soon after Hitler assumed dictatorial powers, ''relations between the Nazi state and the church became progressively worse,'' the outline says. The Nazis ''took advantage of their subsequently increasing strength to violate every one of the Concordat's provisions.''

In 1937, Pope Pius XI denounced Nazi treachery in an encyclical that accused Hitler of ''a war of extermination'' against the church. The battle had been joined on some fronts. Nazi street mobs, often in the company of the Gestapo, routinely stormed offices in Protestant and Catholic churches where clergymen were seen as lax in their support of the regime.

Still, in a society where the entire Jewish population was being automatically condemned without public protest, care was taken to manipulate public perceptions about clergymen who fell into Nazi disfavor. ''The Catholic Church need not imagine that we are going to create martyrs,'' Robert Wagner, the Nazi Gauleiter of Baden, said in a speech, according to the O.S.S. study. ''We shall not give the church that satisfaction. She shall have not martyrs, but criminals.''

But once they had total power and set off to launch a world war, the Nazis made no secret of what lay in store for Christian clergymen who expressed dissent.

In Munich, Nazi street gangs and a Gestapo squad attacked the residence of the Roman Catholic cardinal. ''A hail of stones was directed against the windows, while the men shouted, 'Take the rotten traitor to Dachau!' '' the outline says, adding: ''After 1937, German Catholic bishops gave up all attempts to print'' their pastoral letters publicly and instead ''had them merely read from the pulpits.''

Then the letters themselves were confiscated. 'In many churches, the confiscation took place during Mass by the police snatching the letter out of the hands of the priests as they were in the act of reading it.''

Later the same year, dissident Protestant churches joined in a manifesto protesting Nazi tactics. In response, the Nazis arrested 700 Protestant pastors.

Objectionable statements made by the clergy would no longer be prosecuted in the courts, the Nazis said. Statements ''injurious to the State would be ruthlessly punished by 'protective custody,' that is, the concentration camp,'' the outline says.
Pages: « 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 [52] 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 ... 115 »
Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!