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“It's all about the population sample. You never hear from the atheists who're comfortable with you being a theist. They don't have an ax to grind. Since the only ones you hear from are those who are those with the aformentioned ax it appears to you as though they are all dealing with anger issues.”

Well stated. I don’t presume to understand where GraniteStateConservative’s anger comes from or why he talks about god as someone he’s very angry with if he doesn’t believe god is real. (No offense GSC; I really don’t disagree with some of your reasoning as you are very bright and knowledgeable, but your tone is rather harsh and personal and comes off as being edgy and angry and bitter and it sort of casts a bad light on some of us fellow non-believers….and it won’t win you any friends, my friend :), ).

I personally do not believe in a supreme being so that makes me an Atheist and I’m not ashamed or apologetic for my belief (or lack thereof), but I also don’t hate “God” and I certainly don’t hate believers in god either. In fact, more often that not, I come to the defense of the believer to freely express their belief and I think the concept of a loving god, for me, a timeless universal source of goodness and love that people can look up to, is a beautiful and uniquely human concept. And I believe that god has gone by many names for many different cultures over time and that god is the literary and creative manifestation of our own making in response to the very human need to have a moral code and social structure to live by.

I believe that mankind is the ultimate pack animal; that our physical shortcomings compared to other animals and our extremely long development from birth to self sufficiency along with our large brains and interdependence on one another for survival necessitated something more, much deeper and mysterious that animal instinct alone could give us. But for me that also explains why god is also sometimes full of anger, jealousy and contradiction as those are also part of the human condition.

Without a unified social and moral code, we humans would fall into complete anarchy and that’s why, while I don’t believe in god, I also see the Judeo-Christian ethic as a good thing. I also believe there are many good ethical teachings in other religions such as Buddhism and Taoism.

I am not a Buddhist per se, but I have several books for daily Zen meditations that I read each day because I find that very simplistic approach for doing good or at least doing no harm very compatible with my belief in the overall goodness of human nature and the concept of free will which I also embrace. Free will or self will run riot is anarchy while the free will to make good choices that benefit others while also benefiting my own piece of mind brings me in harmony with the world around me while not compromising my core beliefs. This is why this Atheist believes that abortion on demand and euthanasia are wrong. This is also why I wouldn’t dream of demonstrating in front of or bombing an abortion clinic or demonstrating at the funeral of a soldier whether or not he or she is gay. This is why, while I believe that the homosexual lifestyle is not as good as a heterosexual marriage for raising children, I don’t hate gay people or think they deserve to die a horrible death as some so called Christians have espoused.

In other words; Live and Let Live. I believe that one’s belief in god is the manifestation in what he believes about himself. If we are loving and caring to one another, so is our god or our belief in the human condition and if we are hateful and full of vengeance, then so is our god and how we perceive the world around us. Most likely we are a mix of both and then so our god reflects these feelings as well, hence the very human like contradictions found in the Bible. For me as an Atheist, to hate god and the followers of god is to hate that which makes us all human and hence hate myself. I choose to embrace the overall goodness of the human condition and reject hatred of the believer for the non-believer and the hatred of the non-believer for the believer.

I don’t believe that it’s my job to convince the believer to reject what he believes and what brings him or her comfort and meaning in this rather chaotic world anymore than I want the believer to convert me to a point of view that I find irrational. I believe that more good is done by leading by example and not shouting at one another in a futile attempt to prove who is right as that always comes down to a personal choice of ones own conscience. I could be wrong, you could be wrong, who knows we all might be wrong, but at the end of the day it comes down to how we treat one another that matters.

Well stated. I don’t presume to understand where GraniteStateConservative’s anger comes from or why he talks about god as someone he’s very angry with if he doesn’t believe god is real. (No offense GSC; I really don’t disagree with some of your reasoning as you are very bright and knowledgeable, but your tone is rather harsh and personal and comes off as being edgy and angry and bitter and it sort of casts a bad light on some of us fellow non-believers….and it won’t win you any friends, my friend :), ).

It's bad form to not cc me on posts like this. I'll assume it was just accidental. It's no big deal.

I'm actually not the least bit angry at God, because, as you said, I don't think he exists. I'm not angry at Voldemort, either.

I state things the way I do because I call a spade, a spade. And I have known Christians my whole life who all basically ignore things about God that they don't really care for. They don't think about the implications of things in the Bible, their book of record. Most Christians believe because it's a cheap drug. They "take a hit", so to speak, when they feel sad or bad or confused. That's fine with me, I don't care if they want to medicate themselves. I just want to get inside the mind of someone who can still use that God pill even after having an appreciation for the things in the Bible that really make no sense at all. The Bible's practically like Alice in Wonderland, the way that there are holes in the plot and the characters act irrationally.

The standard cop-out is that because we can't be as smart as God, he can basically do whatever he wants-- he could give everyone on the planet ebola and then kick us all in the groin and that would somehow be justified. It's crazy talk, but I'm hoping to one day hear something better.

The analogy between God and Jigsaw the serial killer is a good one. They both do disgusting things for some supposedly enlightened purpose. It's not my fault that God did the things he did.

No one is comfortable defending God. That's what I've discovered.

But for me that also explains why god is also sometimes full of anger, jealousy and contradiction as those are also part of the human condition.

Yet, Christians run away from this characterization. They will tell you that God isn't the least bit like humans are.

I don’t believe that it’s my job to convince the believer to reject what he believes and what brings him or her comfort and meaning in this rather chaotic world anymore than I want the believer to convert me to a point of view that I find irrational. I believe that more good is done by leading by example and not shouting at one another in a futile attempt to prove who is right as that always comes down to a personal choice of ones own conscience. I could be wrong, you could be wrong, who knows we all might be wrong, but at the end of the day it comes down to how we treat one another that matters.

I don't confront people on the street or at churches, either. This is a forum for discussion, so I view it as something that is totally appropriate. I never call other posters names. But, you can't get points across without using clear examples and clear words.