Many Atheists Clearly Hate God. Why Is This?

If a person[b] truly[/b] believes that someone isn't real, then how is this even possible? I don't [i]hate[/i] any of the characters I've come across in fiction, even when within the story they've done horrendous things, because I know they don't actually exist, and so my hatred would be pointless and I'd only be making myself miserable for no reason whatsoever.
That being the case, who do so many atheists so clearly hate God? If He's not real, then... I'm sorry, but it makes zero sense to me!

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ElwoodBlues · M

I'm an agnostic, not an atheist; none the less I have a bone to pick with CS Lewis' claim.

Do you believe Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie exist? No, they're clearly fictional characters. Does your disbelief in any way demonstrate hatred for them? Of course not!! The claim is totally absurd.

P.S. for those unfamiliar with the fictional writings of CS Lewis, those are the fictional children who get transported to fictional Narnia.

sunriselover · M

@ElwoodBlues Isn’t CS Lewis dead? He cannot defend his position.

FormerAtheist · 26-30

@sunriselover Yes, he died way back in 1963, on the very day President Kennedy was shot (along with Aldous Huxley).

FormerAtheist · 26-30

@ElwoodBlues But that's just it; many atheists (I have to emphasise "many", because I know how they'll react if I don't) will react viciously to some theist simply proclaiming that they believe in God, whether that's in real life or online (although it happens far more often online). It is a grossly disproportionate reaction to something that is basically innocuous; a belief. They respond with anger and insults, mislead with straw-man arguments, and generally carry on like a douchebag.
No one has ever behaved this way when someone has proclaimed their belief, or obsession with, any fictional characters that I know of; it just doesn't happen.
It must be the cognitive dissonance they no doubt struggle with. It must be HELL to think that life is meaningless, there's no free will, that we're nothing more than complex chemistry and electricity, and that when we die that's it.