(May 14, 2015 at 10:37 am)nicanica123 Wrote: And I don't get the animosity towards god from so many atheist. Atheist always say, "you don't believe in thor or zeus do you?" Well why don't thor and zues get your animosity all the same? Or do they? What about hindu gods? Are those same imaginary figures all cunts too? You can easily say yes they are but I wonder if they all well up the same emotional disdain
It's two things in my case. First it's looking objectively at the god depicted in the Bible. The god of the OT is an arbitrary, blood thirsty, tyrant. And on top of all that he's needy. The god of the NT demands faith without evidence in return for an eternity spent worshiping him and threatens hellfire if you don't believe. And he's rather needy too. The problem with him is that he was invented a couple thousand years ago by people. And he reflects many on the worst qualities of people.
Second, it the stupid things people do in the name of god: wars, crusades, gay bashing, slave owning, shunning, prosperity theology, and on and on. It's not that people don't do bad things without believing in him, but that he makes such a damned good self justification when they do.
What about the other gods? Well yes, they too are imaginary. But I don't spend much time worrying about Zeus. Allah is a problem for the same reasons Yahweh is a problem. And Islam is currently the greater producer of violence and intolerance. Hinduism too creates problems, they just aren't problems in my backyard very often. But yeah, a belief system that divides people into castes is a bad thing. Not to mention that the idea that this life is the result of what you did in the last one is perfect excuse to ignore the poor or ill.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.