10-18-2010, 09:32 PM
the_poochies wrote: While I'm not a big fan of the guy, Benedict XIV spoke about how the 20th century's distrust of religion led to the growth of the two most destructive movements of the century: Nazism and Communism. Both political movements placed their supreme trust in science or sociological ideas, and Nazism was horrifically linked with the scientific love-fest over eugenics that was all of the rage during the first half of the 20th century. IMHO, it seems like science without a moral structure may carry us to a totalitarian state akin to 1984 or Brave New World.
I don't believe any of that for a moment. The nazis used "science" as an excuse for their policies which were born of bigotry and religious intolerance. Their practice of eugenics could at best be referred to as pseudoscience, much in the way creationism is pseudoscience, and in no way followed scientific principles.
I also think you've got your popes mixed up. You must mean Benedict XVI, the former hitler youth. The catholic church in general were disgracefully neutral towards nazi atrocities, and most historians considered hitler to be a catholic, though one who didn't go to mass and didn't like the church hierarchy.