There are God hating atheists. What I refer to are people who were raised within a powerful belief system. Their atheism is powerfully and emotionally reactive against that belief system and it's ultimate symbol. They profess not to believe in that God but much of their own thought system revolves in a negative sense around it.

Edit: Just a note that the specific term "God Hating Atheist" I take from John Gray's book Seven Types of Atheism.

I think it's a reasonable response for atheists that were raised in these systems to have this strong negative reaction to that prior belief system.

This "hate", however, is not directed toward an entity this atheist thinks exists. The type of atheist you describe hates the concept of "god" that their prior belief system constructed.

When one comes out of a system that one feels they were duped by for 20+ years (in my case), sure, I retain a powerful, strong, negative reaction to that system and its concept of god.

It does not mean that my disbelief in this god is equivalent to some kind of "religiousness" and to suggest that I think is incredibly naive

A little off topic, but it's mesmerizing to me to see hordes of intelligent people, completely renouncing to reason and talking to imaginary entities.

To me, it serves as a warning and a life long lesson. I was formally mormon and didn't get out because the thought of a all powerful man in the sky made me extra special was silly. I got out because I looked into the history of the church and found that the founder and his successors were obvious con-men. Like, so obvious that years of indoctrination ultimately gave way.

Had the founder any moral character and I frankly might still be a mormon today. (though, tbh, it was likely because of his immorality that mormonism has survived. I'd probably not be around as I'm from a large family that likely wouldn't have happened without mormonism).

The lesson I took from that is to challenge my world views, don't take assumed knowledge for granted, and to be extra super wary of anyone trying to tug on emotions to motivate me into action.

The translation of the Golden Plates has always struck me as insane. And that people would take a man at his word on all of the details… even more insane.

> Smith said that he found the plates on September 22, 1823, on a hill near his home in Manchester, New York, after the angel Moroni directed him to a buried stone box. He said that the angel prevented him from taking the plates but instructed him to return to the same location in a year. He returned to that site every year, but it was not until September 1827 that he recovered the plates on his fourth annual attempt to retrieve them. He returned home with a heavy object wrapped in a frock, which he then put in a box. He allowed others to heft the box but said that the angel had forbidden him to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original "reformed Egyptian" language.

Oh and the plates have never been found or seen by anyone else.

Oh yeah. It's really just totally insane. As someone born into the faith you are taught it's just another miracle like Jesus/Peter walking on water or coming back from the dead. Even though those events were recorded (according to most biblical scholars) around 100 years after they supposedly took place.

Quiet literally the same as if I wrote about how George Washington felled a cherry tree with a magic axe that granted him the ability to see through time.

When your parents believe it, and their parents believed it, etc all the way back to the founding of the church when your (rubes) of ancestors fell for a con... yeah, hard to see the lie for what it is. Even if, from the outside, it's beyond obvious.

I'd consider it the difference between answering this question with "I don't have any" and "I have atheism"

"I don't have any" is the one that doesn't care, vs "I am atheist" says you care a whole lot about god. You don't identify as afairist at all. If you do, you're almost certainly a fairy hating afairist

Big difference here is that there aren't multibillion dollar organizations with billions of followers firmly and strongly convinced of the existence of fairies to the point where they want to write laws based on fairy culture and teachings. If I lived in such a culture, I'd probably describe myself as an afairist.

I would not call myself an atheist if it weren't for the fact that theism is thoroughly and deeply ingrained in american culture.

In china, most people are atheists, but they don't really identify as such. It's simply the default. Were I in that circumstance, I certainly would feel exactly the same way.

I am an atheist and definitely care a ton about religion. Because what people believe highly influences their actions. A mind that can believe things without good reason or evidence can believe anything. Often these things are nasty, awful things. People then promote these things in government and society, and because they are couched in 'religion' get some sort of exemption from criticism at large. Is there anything you COULDN'T believe based on faith? If i do not need to provide evidence, is there anything i couldn't deeply hold and promote, that is offensive and problematic to a society? If i don't need to provide evidence, how can you question me when my supreme being has told me that men are better than woman, that people of my religion are better than others, that cis people are better than lgbtq+ people. That white people are better than people of color. It's my supreme being, i don't have to prove him to you. "It's true for me", and you need to respect me for it.

That is just wrong.

For many formerly religious people God was very "real" as a force they thought existed and had an effect on them, and I think it's quite possible to feel hate towards that God and what he represents, even if you no longer thinks he literally exists.