Hitler wasn’t an atheist. He sure wasn’t a traditional Christian, of course, but he was sort of a neo-Pagan crypto-Christian who explicitly rejected evolution and based his racism on the idea that the ‘races’ had been created separately. The Holocaust owed far more to the virulent strain of anti-Semitism that Martin Luther embraced and fostered. That was certainly the motivation for the majority who actually carried out the crimes in person.

As to the Communist states under Stalin and Mao - they also explicitly rejected neo-Darwinian evolution and embraced (and enforced) Lysenkoism instead. The resulting crop failures when reality failed to match up to “worker’s science” killed millions, accounting for a substantial chunk - possibly a majority - of the death toll from those regimes.
Ironically, the people under Hitler, Stalin, and Mao would have been better off if those ‘leaders’ had accepted neo-Darwinian evolution.

The temptation to mock a group of people who pose the dominating majority, but nevertheless feel the need to use a symbol that in old times was used as a secret sign of recognition among persecuted members of an ostracized religion is great though.

My answer: because the Christian religion, according to its own holy book, is about having a personal relationship with God, making the outward display of that relationship vain and vulgar and, thus, deserving of ridicule and mockery. It’s the same as when a rich person flaunts his wealth, a brilliant person flaunts his intelligence, a beautiful person flaunts her beauty, a victor in a sporting event flaunts his win, etc.: it’s simply bad taste. When Christians flaunt what they believe to be their salvation, it is both bad taste and hypocrisy.

Russ continues: “If you want to put a sticker on your car that says, “I am an Atheist”, go ahead….”

It seems to me the Darwin fish is very effectively sending the desired message, “I believe in evolution, not creationism.” Accordingly, I would ask Russ the same thing he asked in his previous comment: they are doing it “simply to identify themselves as [evolutionists]. Why? Why do you care? Why does it upset you to the point that you feel a need to publicly [attack people for] displaying a “parody” of this symbol?” Russ, YOU are the one who is torqued about this issue, so it seems to me YOU are the one who needs to justify why being as torqued as you are is reasonable and justified.

In fact, no matter how hard the in-group spins it, displays of group pride ALWAYS have a troubling flip-side: Pride in one’s in-group always involve some disparagement of those who are not members. Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s a raw slap on the face, but it’s always there. What do yo think parents of struggling students think when they see those bumper stickers that read: “My child is an honors student at X school”?

When I see those plastic Jesus fish on cars, I often interpret them as a way of thumbing noses at non-Christians. “We’re going to heaven and you’re not.” Or “We figured it out and you didn’t.” or “By putting this fish on my car I’m serving Jesus.” Or “I’m putting a plastic fish on my car in lieu of giving serious thought to pressing issues.” “Because I don’t have the patience to actually read the Bible—because it is rife with confusing statements and outright contradictions—I’d rather put just stick a plastic fish on my car.”

Mostly, I think that the plastic fish displayer is trying to say: “I’m displaying this symbol of my in-group because I’m so damned insecure in those religious beliefs I publicly profess.”

We don’t go around publicly professing things that are clearly based on evidence. People quickly start believing things that are truly believable. They don’t need to see the plastic fish to be convinced. They don’t need to be reminded to believe believable things every Sunday. From the pulpit, the preacher doesn’t need to repeatedly say really true things like this: “The lights in this church operate through electricity. Next week, we’ll again be discussing the fact that electricity is necessary for turning on the church lights. In fact, next month we’ll have a big festival dedicated to this joyous fact where we will sing songs about the need for electricity to make the church lights work.”

If there is a heaven (and by all accounts, I won’t be admitted), I’d like to at least watch the special awards being handed out at the Pearly Gates to those people who bought their little plastic fishes instead of donating that money to desperately poor children. I can just hear St. Peter saying: “Great job driving around with that plastic fish. Come on in!”

On the fungibility of dollars, see http://dangerousintersection.org/2006/06/29/curses-dollars-and-hours-are-both-fungible/

In another direction entirely, I must confess that I don’t like Darwin fish. I think, if anything, they just further the fundamentalist belief that evolution/darwinism is a “religion” to those that accept it. But I don’t really dig on bumper stickers much at all. Empty rhetorical conclusions without premises and all that.

Russ, the two groups of Christians that you refer to in the above two sentences are obviously different groups of people, so your reasoning is nonsensical. Whether or not some Christians sheltered Jews, that issue is completely independent of the question of whether or not other Christians caused the Holocaust. Furthermore, although we can debate Hitler’s religious beliefs (he was raised Catholic and his book, Mein Kampf, makes numerous reference to God), the fact is that most of the people in Germany and elsewhere who implemented his terrible policies were Christians. Likewise, the Ku Klux Klan declares itself to be a Christian organization, as does the neo-Nazi group, Aryan Nation. George Bush also considers himself a Christian (as do many of his supporters) and that hasn’t stopped him from killing tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Iraq.

Moreover, if you read the Old Testament within your own holy book, you’ll find that the god you worship was no stranger to genocide….or infanticide, torture, incest, slavery…the list goes on and on.

My point is not to disparage Christianity, merely to point out that your indignation is misplaced.

But if anything, Russ, I would have to say you probably have consistency. I would guess you also disapprove of atheists blaspheming, or of even throwing around the name of your God at all, since we don’t believe in the idea the word symbolizes. Do you consider it “cowardly” for an atheist to misuse/misrepresent the word “God” or “Jesus”? What implications does this opinion have, if any?

Atheism doesn’t cause communism, communism required anti-theism. Communism is a state religion, and (as I mentioned in the blog and any historian can tell you) going against the state religion is very hazardous.

The population of Germany was as atheistic in the 1930’s as was the U.S. Maybe 1% (w.a.g). The non-Jew, non-Muslim population is responsible for what happened. Atheism was not the cause. If Christianity was such a blight to Hitler, why didn’t he do something about those Christians besides supporting their churches? Many Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran churches were built under his rule. My mother was in Berlin to see it.

Here’s one quote by Adolf H, a self-proclaimed Catholic to the end:

“The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God’s will, and actually fulfill God’s will, and not let God’s word be desecrated.”

Does that sound like it came from an atheist?

One could argue (as I do for Adams and Jefferson) that politicians can always be quoted as crediting the popular gods for all good things. In the cases of those two, one can also find essays arguing that no higher power does any good for man.