Atheists Don’t Hate God.
I'm an atheist and an active participant in debate groups about skepticism vs Christianity, and skepticism vs religion in general. These are neat groups and I have met many intelligent believers and skeptics through them. I've also met very unintelligent skeptics and believers because of them. More than anything else though because of these groups I've been introduced to bad arguments. If you go onto these groups you'll hear bad arguments from both sides, but I want to address one from the Christian camp in this post. If after you read this post and want me to write more stuff like this let me know.
There are some Christians (not all Christians think this way, so if you want to comment keep that in mind) who believe that skeptics "hate God". This is not true. At all. In fact it's so untrue that there's actually a word for people who "hate God(s)". And guess what? That word isn't "atheist", it's actually "misotheist". A misotheist is someone who hates God or the gods. Atheists do not hate God or the gods, and many skeptics who say that they "dislike" deities mean in the same sense that readers dislike Voldemort or any other antagonist in a literary piece. The implication with misotheism is that these are men and women who believe a deity (or deities) exists and that for whatever reason these beings ought to be hated and are hated at least by misotheists. An example of a misotheist can be found in the movie "God's Not Dead" in the antagonist Professor Radisson. Misotheism and atheism are not the same and I want to operate under the assumption that the Christians who think that atheism=misotheism are merely misinformed and not individuals who seek to confuse others into thinking this way.
As a skeptic I have no opinion on God. I do not hate or like God. In order for me to have an opinion on God that would make sense to me I'd have to believe in God or in some deity which I don't. When Christians say that atheists hate God it doesn't make any sense to most of us. We understand the purpose behind it: to find some way to rationalize our disbelief in a Christian worldview but it doesn't actually make sense in the real world that we all have to share. My lack of a belief in something you believe in is not in anyway a sign that I hate the thing I claim to not believe in.
I must respectfully ask that Christians who claim skeptics hate God stop making that claim. It's dishonest. I can assure you that as an atheist I do not hate your deity. I don't even really hate your religion. Or you. I hate the behavior of some members of your faction and I'm sure that you can say the same for some members of my group. But that doesn't mean that I'm "suppressing the truth in unrighteousness". I'm merely neutral towards a claim that you make until I see evidence which demonstrates that the claim is reflective of reality. I don't think there's anything wrong with needing evidence to believe in something and I'm sure that many of you don't either, perhaps it's just that what qualifies as evidence to the two of us differs.
Christians who think that atheists hate God: you believing this isn't going to convince skeptics who know that they merely lack a belief to seriously consider your religion. If anything you'll make yourselves and others who agree with you look silly. You'll also make it harder for us to set aside our differences and genuinely engage in well-meaning dialogue. Please consider this when you next contemplate spreading statements that either imply or out right state that nonbelievers hate your deity. If you want to change the minds of skeptics you need to properly understand the position of skepticism and if you think this way that's proof you don't properly understand the minds of skeptics. And it's possible that you might have thought you were a skeptic when you were actually more properly defined as a misotheist. There's nothing wrong with misotheism and many cultures and belief systems have deities you are supposed to dislike, deities who represent elements that invoke sensations of misotheism in believers in those systems. Keep that in mind.
I hope we can engage in productive dialogues and learn how to treat each other with respect and communicate despite our differences of opinions and beliefs. Let's sincerely listen to each other with respect! Let me know what you think of what I've said here by leaving a comment. I'd love to chat with you.
Why I’m an atheist
A quote I usually remember when I think of Atheism is "Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either: impotent, evil, or imaginary." Why am I an atheist? Take a good look around at the world. At the starving children, poverty, disease, war, and hatred. That's why. Because if God does exist then I really want an explanation. I used to pray to God every day. Right before I went to sleep. I didn't know the prayers, so I just talked and hoped someone would hear me. No one did. I prayed for my grades, my health, my future success. Well it looks like all three are gone. I don't believe in God because I can't believe in an all powerful being that can't make our world a better place, that does nothing while I go through hell. I don't want to believe in a God that stands by while the world is suffering. An atheist is someone who has opened his/her eyes to the harshness of reality. God is a hope that many cling onto because if there is no God there is no easy answer. What's the point of life, what happens when we die, etc. But there is no easy answer. The idea of simply not existing eventually terrifies people. The unknown has always terrified people. But atheists realize that what is scarier than the unknown is believing in something that doesn't exist.
*I hope this offends no one, it is simply my opinion on a very controversial matter.*
Autism.
Why can't your kid talk?
Why do you not teach him to behave?
Your kid is so annoying.
Your kid never stops flapping his arms.
They're terrible parents.
they can't even look after one kid.
...
Although I look normal, I have an illness, a mental illness.
You may not understand, but you don't have the right to judge me that quickly.
Don't blame my parents, they're trying their hardest to give me everything to help me.
You don't need to yell at me if I don't behave like the other kids.
I just don't understand simple instructions.
I can hear you, but can't function it very well.
Please don't judge me and my family when we're in public.
Just know that they are trying their hardest to look after me.
When I got diagnosed it brought a lot more hassle for them.
They didn't have to read a book, they learned from me.
All I want you to know, before judging me, think about what could be going on inside my brain.
I am an autistic kid.
And I am proud to say it out loud.
Backseat Freestyle, Pt. 2
"We 'aliens' hereby challenge you, to a legendary freestyle rap battle."
"Those rhymes didn't rattle me too much, thy kind need a saddle? Tho'lack'th the touch."
"Thou humans love thyselves too much. We'r'more advanced; we are above and in front."
"YOU Sithlords are mere shadows and dust, WE Earthlings know Love and
THUS,
INDEPEN-DUNCE!"
"That logical inferunce was far too abrupt; but's fortunate, thy psychic hardrive's still
QUITE
corrupt."
"No it's not, meremight, I know y'know that we and I have got means to spill THY cup."
"And what, 's'a relephunt statement (donkey)'d make us trust in humans' emancipation?"
"Aliun, the same magnificunce (key) that WE all always and already are emaNAtin.'"
...and with that they all just took off, bringing an interimend to all that hatin'...
Feeling waspish
A wasp fell in
my beer.
Well, I suppose
we can share.
But then I
thought about
the wasp's liver.
And I thought,
l'd be so lucky
to go swimming
in beer.
I mean 'to go!'
Know what I mean?
And then I thought:
swimming in beer
is OK if you
can choose to
climb out.
Otherwise it's
a kind of suicide
(or insecticide).
So I made
my fork into a raft
and the wasp
hopped onto the shaft.
He dripped for a bit.
l say 'he' because
I'm now fond
Of this drunken wasp.
His plight is my plight:
We're really
Starting to bond.
So we tried our wings
and prepared for flight.
Oops here we go,
a bit wobbly but
still the number one
when it comes
to that inefable
lightness of stinging.
The Sarcastic Nature of Time; Green Lemons
When I was seven
and fell down the stairs
I wanted to die.
You were 13,
you told me to wait.
When I was 13
and hit by a car
I wanted to die.
You were 18,
you told me to wait.
When I was 18,
depressed with split wrists,
I wanted to die.
You were 26,
you told me to wait.
When I was 26
and slipped off the roof
I wanted to live.
You were 26,
the spitting image of me,
like looking in a mirror.
It took me until our fourth encounter to cry.