From Sam Harris' 2004 The End of Faith:
The rise of Nazism in Germany required much in the way of "uncritical loyalty." Beyond the abject (and religious) loyalty to Hitler, the Holocaust emerged out of people's acceptance of some very implausible ideas.
Heinrich Himmler thought the SS should have leeks and mineral water for breakfast. He thought people could be made to confess by telepathy. Following King Arthur and the round table, he would have only twelve people to dinner. He believed that Aryans had not evolved from monkeys and apes like other races, but had come down to earth from the heavens, where they had been preserved in ice from the beginning of time. He established a meteorology division which was given the task of proving this cosmic ice theory. He also thought he was the a reincarnation of Heinrich the First. Himmler was an extreme case: the picture is perhaps one of someone quite mad. But one of his characteristics was much more widely shared -- his mind had not been encouraged to grow. Filled with information and opinion, he had no critical powers.
. . .
Our common humanity is reason enough to protect our fellow human beings from coming to harm. Genocidal intolerance, on the other hand, must inevitably find its inspiration elsewhere. Whenever you hear that people have begun killing noncombatants intentionally and indiscriminately, ask yourself what dogma stands at their backs. What do these freshly minted killers believe? You will find that it is always -- always -- preposterous.
Tags: Sam Harris, The End of Faith, Religion
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