Can you be angry at "god" and simultaneously disbelieve its existence?

[Aoi Magi]

Maybe, after all one can disbelieve the existence and still be "allegorically" angry at it

[BrokenQuill92]

I'm not angry at god I'm angry at the IDEA of god(s).

[rado84]

Of course you can't! The only way one could believe and disbelieve something simultaneously is if they're schizophrenics.

[abaris]

Try as I might I don't feel any anger at something I don't believe exists. Now the ground crew is a different matter entirely. But the mythological figure leaves me cold.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Try as I might I don't feel any anger at something I don't believe exists. Now the ground crew is a different matter entirely. But the mythological figure leaves me cold.

QFT. The 'god wants you to XYZ' stuff is effectively just the believer telling me what they think I/we 'ought' to be doing, not their deity. They've had just as many conversations with their god as I have (zero), so when I get angry its because of them thinking their vivid imagination automatically gives them a right to dictate to others.

[Pyrrho]

I think it depends on what you mean.  When you watch a movie, and the actions of a fictional character make you angry, are you angry at the character?  Would it be more correct to say that you are angry at the idea of something, rather than the something?  Like the idea of some villain torturing people in the story of the movie, and not angry with any real torture from it, as it is just pretend?  And if that is right, then when being angry with the idea of something, in the case of some nonexistent thing, that "something" would really be nothing.

So, I think it is more a question of language use than anything else.


I like the way Laika put it:

Well I wouldn't say I'm angry at God. I don't like him as a character, but I don't have a grudge against him. Most of the time when I get angry, it's directed toward the foul actions committed by some of the people who believe in him (Westboro Church, I'm looking at you). 

But yes, I feel as though I can dislike him as written in the Bible and dislike what his character drives some individuals to do, while still saying he doesn't exist.

I think this comes up in discussions with Christians who are confused about the fact that fictional characters in stories can lead to having real emotional responses, as well as confusing anger at something else (e.g., a particular religious institution, particular Christians, etc.) with anger at god.  In other words, I think it is yet another example of Christians getting things muddled and confused, and so some imagine that atheists really believe in god because they are sometimes thought to be angry at god.

[Simon Moon]

I voted yes.

Well written fiction has the ability to create characters that are able to elicit all sorts of emotional reactions.

I've been emotionally involved in many works of fiction, and the characters.

[SteelCurtain]

I have a deep seated loathing and hatred for Joffrey Baratheon. He was in my life for 1800 pages or so. He was the most cruel, vile, petty, jealous, and egotistical character I have ever encountered in genre fiction. I hate Joffrey Baratheon, and I have never cheered louder than when the Queen of Thorns slipped him The Strangler and made him choke to death in front of all the lords and ladies of King's Landing.

[Athene]

However, you can dislike a particular character from a work of fiction. Like  that redheaded skank on House of Cards.

[Nope]

I said maybe. People aren't logical. It doesn't make sense to be angry at something that doesn't exist but people aren't always logical.

For a friend, I read the entire Twilight series because she promised it would get better. I hate the Bella character with the force of a thousand nuclear bombs.

Someone who has been deeply hurt by the concept of god might hate him in the same way that I hate Bella