The Christian God Does Violate Human Free Will

[dyresand]

The counter to that is to say that we aren't angry at God any more than we are angry at Vishnu or Set.  We are angry at the idea of God.  We are angry at all the physical and psychic pain that this idea has caused.  We are angry that this false notion has caused otherwise good people to torture and kill over different ideas.  We are angry that a wrong (and wrong headed) idea has cause the sacrifice of infants and the burning of witches.  We are angry at how the idea of God has caused people to stand idly by while their fellows humans were marched into oven.

In attacking the idea of God, the most atheists can be guilty of is sloppy speech.  I've done it myself when I say, 'Why would God do such-and-such' when I should really phrase it, 'How can you countenance the idea that you God would do such-and-such'.  The theistic position is so weak, so untenable, than they're pouncing on grammatical laziness rather than address the inherent, self-defeating proposition that is the idea of God.

So, no.  I'm not angry at God.  I'm angry at theists for thinking God is a good idea.

Boru

I don't understand why theists think they've won a brownie-point by saying that we secretly believe in god. They know that what you said above is what we are angry at. Misrepresenting atheists is not going to convince us that god is real, so why do they bother?

Because they want to sleep better at night thinking they won a argument. In truth they never won any argument at all for their position.