ABSTRACT
According to contemporary thinkers such as Herbert Butterfield and Paul Johnson, the emergence of totalitarian regimes has to be seen in the context of the spread of nihilistic atheism. Putting man in the place of God, says A. N. Wilson, did not have the expected effect of elevating human conduct "but of demeaning it to depths of cruelty, depravity and stupidity unparalleled in human history." The belief in secular salvation, as James Billington points out, is uniquely modern and was ushered in by the American and French Revolutions. The religious character of Marxian communism, Nicolas Berdyaev has suggested, "found a congenial breeding ground in the religious psychology and character of the Russian people." Even more than Russian communism, the horrors of the Nazi regime are often seen as the logical outgrowth of the rejection of God. Auschwitz "demonstrates the depth to which humanity, unrestrained by any thought or fear of God, will sink."
