However, Himmler declared: "As National Socialists, we believe in a Godly worldview." He insisted on the existence of a creator-God, who favoured and guided the Third Reich and the German nation, as he announced to the SS: "We believe in a God Almighty who stands above us; he has created the earth, the Fatherland, and the Volk, and he has sent us the Führer. Any human being who does not believe in God should be considered arrogant, megalomaniacal, and stupid and thus not suited for the SS." He did not allow atheists into the SS, arguing that their "refusal to acknowledge higher powers" would be a "potential source of indiscipline". Himmler was not particularly concerned by the question how to label this deity; God Almighty, the Ancient One, Destiny, "Waralda", Nature etc. were all acceptable, as long as they referred to some "higher power that had created this world and endowed it with the laws of struggle and selection that guaranteed the continued existence of nature and the natural order of things." According to Himmler, "Only he who opposes belief in a higher power is considered godless"; everyone else was gottgläubig, but should be thus outside of the church. SS members were put under pressure to identify as gottgläubig and revoke their church membership, if necessary under the threat of expulsion. The SS personnel records show that most of its members who left the church of their upbringing, did so just before or shortly after joining the SS. The Sicherheitsdienst (SD) members were the most willing corps within the SS to withdraw from their Christian denominations and change their religious affiliation to gottgläubig at 90%. Of the SS officers, 74% of those who joined the SS before 1933 did so, while 68% who joined the SS after 1933 would eventually declare themselves gottgläubig. Of the general SS membership, 16% had left their churches by the end of 1937. See also Cult of the Supreme Being Esotericism in Germany and Austria German Christians (movement) German Faith Movement Heathenry (new religious movement) Occultism in Nazism Positive Christianity Religion in Nazi Germany Religious aspects of Nazism Thule Society References 1930s in modern paganism 1940s in modern paganism Conceptions of God Deism Germanic neopaganism Modern paganism in Germany Occultism in Nazism Pantheism Religion in Nazi Germany