Atheists get more angry with God than believers?

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

At least, this is what an article I saw in CNN claimed. There are so many things wrong with this, I hardly know where to start.

I think that "anger at God" for an atheist is a far different matter than it would be for a believer. My own experience has been that I created and maintained an idea of God in my mind for almost a quarter of a century, developing countless patterns of thought that I grew so used to that they were practically automatic for me. When I finally realized that I no longer could believe in God, those automatic thoughts didn't simply vanish. I felt angry at the ideas in my mind about God, but I never really thought those ideas WERE God. Had I thought a little under the surface, I would have had to admit that I was angry about my former beliefs and how they wasted my life... but I sort of doubt that this "study" had a check box in its surveys for THAT sort of anger. So they just lumped it in as anger at God.

Hardly a thorough look at the subject, IMO.

[Sanjuro]

I think the key here is "..or in the past". Yeah, when reality starts conflicting with your indoctrination, your inner conflict can manifest as confusion which can easily turn to anger. When you believe in one all powerful sky daddy, naturally its a good target.

Eventually though, you break through that inner programming and then anger gets directed at yourself for wasting so much of your life on superstitious nonsense.

Of course if not careful one can easily become frustrated with the newly gained perspective because you become keenly aware of the constant bombardment of religious imagery and prosthelytizing. It's pretty easy to get angry at peoples' many versions of "God" that self justify their natural tendencies towards racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. So in a sense I guess that could be true.

[Sanjuro]

One more thing... Wouldn't true believers naturally be less apt to be "angry at god" (or admit to as much) out of fear of divine retribution? Be a good sheep!

[A Person]

The headline and commentary is rather misleading. The key word is the question is in the 'past'.

It's not just religious folks, either. People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image - that is, what they imagined God might be like

People who are now atheist but were once religious may well have experienced anger in the past as they came to terms with how they have been lied to. I never had beliefs to question, but I can imagine that having those doubts and realizing that people you trusted had misled you, must be traumatic and induce feelings of anger.

I can't imagine getting angry with a hypothetical image. Just as I can't 'hate' it - no matter how many times BHL accuses me of it . I can (and do) get angry about religions and the religious and their claims about God and what they think He wants them, to make me, do - since He's to weak and ineffectual to do it Himself.

From her faculty web page, Julie Exline claims to have a strong research interest in 'anger towards God' but I haven't been able to find a copy of the study in question. Without that the journalist's interpretations are likely a bit meaningless.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

I can't imagine getting angry with a hypothetical image.

Seriously, though, wouldn't an intelligent believer be forced to admit that all they have in their minds is a "hypothetical image" of what God should be like?

[A Person]

intelligent believer

Aren't you a bit old to believe in fairies?

[shannon]

Every time I hear Christians talking about an Atheist after a discussion the comment is always the same. Even after a calm, rational, placid conversation the Christian says "I'll pray for you" and "Wow that person is just so bitter". Living here in Bible country and having overtly religious relatives I have been exposed to quite a bit of these talks. When I regularly attended church I remember swarms of these dialogs to the "lost" that would come through. Funny thing is that generally in my life it's the believers in my life who are emotionally triggered first and become enraged during a chat. But in the end the Atheist is always labeled sad, bitter and lost.

[Liv]

I get mad at angry delusional idiots.... God, and those delusional of him who aren't in my way are fine by me.... just stay away from my children.

[Nfidel]

Yeah, when reality starts conflicting with your indoctrination, your inner conflict can manifest as confusion which can easily turn to anger.

unless you are a

true believer(s), naturally ... less apt to be "angry at god" (or admit to as much) out of fear of divine retribution? Be a good sheep!

I think that's a key point. Religion, at least Christianity, has a built in mechanism that stops one's mind from thinking too rationally. Doubts about the Bible, God and/or the teachings of one's church can cause immense fear and self loathing in a believer. Thought-crime may have been more successfully described by Orwell but it was created by religions. I successfully punched through that barrier but it was years before I actually thought about the social and emotional prison that kept me from making my own decisions. That, I think, is what has since stirred the anger in me.

Therefore, I'm angry with anything or anyone that promotes ignorance. And although education can be a predictor of a population's religious beliefs or lack thereof, I still believe critical thinking and skepticism are more important.

Recently while eating lunch with co-workers, a discussion began about a new History Channel program called "Ancient Aliens". So finally, with the discussed episode, the History Channel has evidently combined their two favorite subjects: Nazis and aliens. Anyway, I wasn't the only one skeptical of the program (and no, I didn't watch that crap). When the conversation turned though to the Christian religion, some of the same people who were skeptical of the Alien-Hitler team treated the Bible as if it were a science and history text. In fact they all did. I couldn't help but realize that their knowledge of science and history, where it intersected with the Bible, was equivalent to that of a Sunday School class of 10 year olds.

[Nfidel]

Every time I hear Christians talking about an Atheist after a discussion the comment is always the same. Even after a calm, rational, placid conversation the Christian says "I'll pray for you" and "Wow that person is just so bitter". Living here in Bible country and having overtly religious relatives I have been exposed to quite a bit of these talks. When I regularly attended church I remember swarms of these dialogs to the "lost" that would come through. Funny thing is that generally in my life it's the believers in my life who are emotionally triggered first and become enraged during a chat. But in the end the Atheist is always labeled sad, bitter and lost.

Ditto to everything you wrote. Great post.

[Nfidel]

Sorry if this has been posted before, but it's still funny and a bit enlightening.

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

Oy! That's a cool video. I haven't seen it before, so thanks for posting it.