Meisner: Richard Dawkins leads to National Socialism

I am not a huge fan of Richard Dawkins, but Cardinal Meisner's attack is beyond the pale (thanks to Politblogger for the link): 

Nun aber feiert dieser so genannte wissenschaftliche Atheismus
fröhliche Auferstehung. Hoffentlich durchschauen die Menschen diesen
uralten Dreh, mit dem sie den Gottesglauben verlieren sollen. Es sei
nochmals daran erinnert, dass solche Unternehmungen keine harmlosen
Experimente einiger Leute sind! Wie damals, so kann das auch heute
viele Menschen buchstäblich das Leben kosten.[…]

Ähnlich wie einst die Nationalsozialisten im einzelnen Menschen
primär nur den Träger des Erbgutes seiner Rasse sahen, definiert auch
der Vorreiter der neuen Gottlosen, der Engländer Richard Dawkins, den
Menschen als „Verpackung der allein wichtigen Gene", deren Erhaltung
der vorrangige Zweck unseres Daseins sei.(Now this so-called
scientific atheism is experiencing something of a renaissance.
Hopefully people will see through this old delusion which is supposed
to destroy their belief in God. Let me remind you that these
undertakings are not just the harmless experiments of a few
individuals. Just as we've seen in the past, even today they can cost
many people their lives. […] Just as the Nazis viewed the individual
human being as the genetic agent of his race, so does the Briton
Richard Dawkins, the leader of the New Atheists, define humans as "the
packaging of the all important genes" whose preservation is the
overarching purpose of our existence.)  

The idea that the National Socialists in Germany were somehow
"atheists" is false. In fact, the Nazis persecuted atheists as
representing a "corrupt Jewish spirit"('zersetzenden jüdischen Geistes').
 Furthermore, Cardinal Meisner completely ignores the role of the
Catholic Church promoting antisemitism throughout German history: well
into the 20th century the clergy preached the collective guilt of the
Jews in deicide – the killing of Christ.

Of course, Cardinal Meisner never touches on the controversial role
of Pius XII during the Third Reich.  While individual Catholic clergy
exhibited tremendous bravery against the Nazis and were murdered in the
death camps, the pope never spoke out against Hitler or against Nazi
atrocities, even though the Vatican became aware of these atrocities by
1941.

Pope Benedict XVI is fond of criticizing the "dictatorship of
relativism" he sees in secular society.  But the Catholic Church and
Cardinal Meisner are engaging in historical relativism by distorting
historical fact.  Atheists were not responsible for the horrors of the
Holocaust. 

(Cross-posted at DailyKos)