"Most atheists, and anyone who's actually an atheist," if you prefer.
We've discussed cognitive dissonance before, and atheists are certainly as prone to it as anyone else. However, anyone who "hates God" clearly cannot be an atheist, at least in the literal sense. But I'll grant you that we're verging into "no true Scotsman" territory here; I've had arguments with atheists who were adamant that God doesn't exist, but had no problem with reincarnation or psychic powers or other woo-woo beliefs.
However, in almost every case I've seen of a believer accusing an atheist of hating God, the atheist was actually expressing hatred of religious institutions or people. In some cases, they use mocking/denigrating language when speaking of God, in order to push buttons, and of course it will sound to the people they're mocking as if the atheists are expressing hatred of a being they supposedly don't believe in.
(Which is one reason why I don't find it a very productive strategy, aside from the fact that I don't condone hatred and mockery, as a general rule. Although I make a mockery exception for Slytherins. ;) )
I usually hear the "hates God" accusation from believers who use the "I didn't get a pony for my birthday" argument: i.e., atheists don't really disbelieve in God, they're just petulant children angry at him for not answering a prayer. So I tend to be scornful of such easy dismissals of the atheist position.
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Date: 2009-10-30 10:02 pm (UTC)We've discussed cognitive dissonance before, and atheists are certainly as prone to it as anyone else. However, anyone who "hates God" clearly cannot be an atheist, at least in the literal sense. But I'll grant you that we're verging into "no true Scotsman" territory here; I've had arguments with atheists who were adamant that God doesn't exist, but had no problem with reincarnation or psychic powers or other woo-woo beliefs.
However, in almost every case I've seen of a believer accusing an atheist of hating God, the atheist was actually expressing hatred of religious institutions or people. In some cases, they use mocking/denigrating language when speaking of God, in order to push buttons, and of course it will sound to the people they're mocking as if the atheists are expressing hatred of a being they supposedly don't believe in.
(Which is one reason why I don't find it a very productive strategy, aside from the fact that I don't condone hatred and mockery, as a general rule. Although I make a mockery exception for Slytherins. ;) )
I usually hear the "hates God" accusation from believers who use the "I didn't get a pony for my birthday" argument: i.e., atheists don't really disbelieve in God, they're just petulant children angry at him for not answering a prayer. So I tend to be scornful of such easy dismissals of the atheist position.