Things Christians say, part 29: Why do you hate God?

A weekly series of responses to the things Christians say to atheists, based on the video reproduced here on 30th January 2012.  The aim is to tackle one every weekend, to give both a moderate, polite response to each question ('Piano'), followed by a more forceful rebuttal of the same question ('Forte'). 

Why do you hate God?

Piano

Do you hate fairies?  Do you hate Zeus, Thor, Mithra, or Osiris?

I rather suspect that the answer is that you are simply indifferent to the concepts of fairies or of other gods than your own.

And that is how atheists feel about them too.  The only difference between you and an atheist is that the atheist takes it one god further than you do. 

In order to be an atheist, we simply don't believe in gods who intervene in the natural world.

There might be another term for someone who hates God and although I can't currently think what that word might be, I do know that 'atheist' is not the one. 

***

Forte

You might think that someone who does hate God is likely to be an atheist too.  To reply to that assertion I would simply say that you need to think a bit harder about what you are saying.  How can you hate something that you do not believe in?

If you hate god you are not an atheist!
(Image from here)

I'm not going to ask the same question as above about your feelings toward Allah or Baal as many Christians seem to reserve a special dark place in their hearts for those particular deities.  I assert that this hatred actually demonstrates that you do believe in them and regard them as being a significant threat to your own religion.

I think you would be partly right about the threat, but wrong to believe in their existence.  It is not that it is necessary to believe in any of the deities involved, but the religions that follow other gods tend not to be favourable towards yours.  As such, human religiosity is its own enemy.  I wonder whether any wars have ever been fought over religion! (By the way, as you might have guessed, I only wonder ironically!)


Last week:  There are no contradictions in the bible.
Next week:  I can't stand the idea of there being no life after death. That's why I believe in god.