Would we have considered Hitler merciful if...

[OnceConvinced]

Would we have considered Hitler merciful if when he was lining up the Jews to be sent into the gas chambers he gave them an option that would allow them to to avoid going in.

Perhaps he told them all they needed to do was become official members of the Nazi party and to serve him without question. Let's say that if they agreed to that he would not send them into the gas chambers.

Let's say that 30% of his victims agreed to his terms, while the others refused and were sent into the gas chambers for execution.

Would this make Hitler a merciful man?

[McCulloch]

Merciful? Hardly. He is still rounding people up like cattle, and sending them to die unless they conform. I would hold him in no higher esteem (that's not to say that he remotely close to being in high esteem currently). I don't think this one is directed at me though. This situation is eerily similar to the choice Christians believe is presented to everyone. People can either believe in Jesus or suffer a fate worse than death. I hardly consider this merciful.

It is all relative. To the believer, the alternative is that there is no redemption, no salvation, just eternal damnation and torment. God's offer of forgiveness, seems merciful from that context. Ignore the claim that God is the one who set up the system in the first place.