I don't hate God

[Akincana Krishna dasa]

I'd like to ask a few questions of our resident theists; and they are as follows:

1. Do you believe that Atheists hate God?
2. Do you believe that peoples of other faiths hate God?
3. Who the fuck is promoting this stupid belief; and why haven't they been kicked out of your cosmic circle jerk club?

1. I've seen some that obviously do. Like my sister was born with a debilitating condition and has hardly been able to walk for her entire life. She's had a very difficult life. She told me she can't believe in a God that would do that to her, and that she decided she's an atheist.

One of the big arguments that people give against God is that there is evil in the world. How could a good, all-powerful God allow for that? Without a good answer, I think people intuitively decide God can't exist.

I've also heard the argument that the universe is "stupidly designed." Look up Neil Degrasse Tyson, for example - who I think calls himself agnostic, or doesn't prefer to define his stance on God. It's a similar idea - the universe isn't paradise, in fact, life kinda sucks a lot of the time, and most of the universe isn't inhabitable by human beings, so how could an intelligent God be responsible for that?

I'm sure there are atheists that just don't care, or who are convinced by different ideas. Obviously if you're really convinced there's no God, how could you hate?

So my answer is - sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends.

2. Belonging to one faith or another is superficial. Submitting to a higher power is natural. We're not the highest power in the universe, we don't make most of the rules about how the universe works. There are all kinds of laws that govern how life works.

So obviously in human history God has been defined, understood, worshiped in a variety of ways. Often religious people get fanatical and argue "my religion is the only truth, everyone else is a jerk." Still, from a broader perspective, we can appreciate the nearly universal instinct to respect a higher power.

I think you can say that even naturalism or scientism - which is generally atheistic - still respects the power of the laws of nature, and works diligently to understand them. So from one point of view, such thinkers can be said to respect God in a different way.

So I would definitely never automatically say that anyone who isn't in my church, or even anyone who doesn't understand reality the way I do, hates God.

3. Fanaticism and small-mindedness exists all over the place. I've met fanatical atheists. So, it's really a universal phenomenon.