Difference between revisions of "You're just angry at god"
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| − | "'''You're just angry at god'''" is something [[religion|religious]] people accuse [[atheism|atheists]] of in order to dismiss their lack of belief. The obvious problem with this accusation is, you can't be angry at something you don't believe; atheists aren't mad at gods for the same reason they're not mad at | + | "'''You're just angry at god'''" is something [[religion|religious]] people accuse [[atheism|atheists]] of in order to dismiss their lack of belief. The obvious problem with this accusation is, you can't be angry at something you don't believe; atheists aren't mad at gods for the same reason they're not mad at leprechauns. However, I don't suggest arguing along these lines. Instead, it's best to first understand why religious people make this claim to begin with. |
| − | + | Probably the most popular reason you hear this dismissal is because religious people, despite their claims to the contrary, frequently doubt the existence of their gods after a traumatic event happens in their life, as you will come to understand if you attend their religious services for any length of time. Pretty much every preacher of note has at least one sermon about doubt. This is because no religion has come up with a comforting answer to the question, [[problem of evil|why do bad things happen to good people]]? However, religions attempt to inoculate against such a crisis of faith with stories of their god allowing his faithful followers to be tested in traumatic ways, and, when the tormented people maintain their faith, they're rewarded greatly for their steadfastness. | |
[[Image:God's Not Dead - Quote - Yes. I Hate God.jpg|thumb|256x256px|Check mate atheist!]] | [[Image:God's Not Dead - Quote - Yes. I Hate God.jpg|thumb|256x256px|Check mate atheist!]] | ||
| − | For example, in the [[Book of Job]], Elohim boasts about his faithful servant Job, but Satan argues that Job is only faithful because Elohim has given him so many riches. So, Elohim allows Satan to take away Job's wealth, torture him severely, and even murder his children. Job's wife tells him to renounce his faith and die rather than remain faithful and be tortured, and, it's assumed that Job must be awfully angry at Elohim for allowing all these terrible things to happen to him. However, Job remains faithful, and, in the end, Elohim rewards Job's faith with new children and even more worldly possessions than he had before. A modern example is the Evangelical film ''[[God's Not Dead]]'' where an atheist professor who tries to convince all his students that the Christian god doesn't exist eventually lets it slip that he | + | For example, in the [[Book of Job]], Elohim boasts about his faithful servant Job, but Satan argues that Job is only faithful because Elohim has given him so many riches. So, Elohim allows Satan to take away Job's wealth, torture him severely, and even murder his children. Job's wife tells him to renounce his faith and die rather than remain faithful and be tortured, and, it's assumed that Job must be awfully angry at Elohim for allowing all these terrible things to happen to him. However, Job remains faithful, and, in the end, Elohim rewards Job's faith with new children and even more worldly possessions than he had before. A modern example is the Evangelical film ''[[God's Not Dead]]'' where an atheist philosophy professor who tries to convince all his students that the Christian god doesn't exist, but eventually lets it slip that he secretly does believe in the Christian god and is angry at him because his mother died even though he prayed for her to be saved (the professor is brutally killed shortly thereafter!). |
| − | Religious people view [[apostasy]] through such a lens. To them, when a former religious person denounces their faith, they frequently assume something terrible | + | Religious people often view [[apostasy]] through such a lens. To them, when a former religious person denounces their faith, they frequently assume something terrible must have happened to the person, but, unlike Job who remained faithful through the trial, the fallen believer decided to denounce their faith to punish the Christian god, even though they still secretly believe. It is for this reason I don't think atheists should respond to the accusation by saying "you can't be mad at something you don't believe;" due to their religion's indoctrination, they may believe the atheist secretly harbors a belief in their god and is lying about not believing. This is also why religious people don't usually say this phrase to someone who deconverted from a fundamentally different religion; you won't hear a Christian tell a former Hindu that they're just angry at the Christian god. |
| − | I think a better approach is to ask the religious person why | + | I think a better approach is to ask the religious person, "why do you think I'm angry at your god?" and, if they explain how people lose faith due to traumatic events, I can then explain to them that nothing that bad has ever happened in my life, instead, my atheism was brought about by learning more about various subjects like history, mythology, biology, physics, cosmology, geology, and philosophy. I've spoken to many other atheists about why they deconverted, and I find that this is by-and-large the most common reason. In fact, of the hundreds of atheists that I've met, not a single one has ever pointed to a traumatic event in their life as the cause of their deconversion. It's not about trauma, it's about education. When you confront their accusation in this manner, they can't so easily fall back on their preconceived belief of you being angry at their god, and must reassess their understanding of apostates. |
| + | |||
| + | ==Media== | ||
| + | {{YouTube|Wa4UaieAWZA|Genetically Modified Skeptic - Why Christian responses to deconstruction are so predictable.}} | ||
| + | {{YouTube|ozt-YJtbBsQ|Mr. Deity - Being angry at god.}} | ||
==Links== | ==Links== | ||
Latest revision as of 16:12, 2 March 2024
"You're just angry at god" is something religious people accuse atheists of in order to dismiss their lack of belief. The obvious problem with this accusation is, you can't be angry at something you don't believe; atheists aren't mad at gods for the same reason they're not mad at leprechauns. However, I don't suggest arguing along these lines. Instead, it's best to first understand why religious people make this claim to begin with.
Probably the most popular reason you hear this dismissal is because religious people, despite their claims to the contrary, frequently doubt the existence of their gods after a traumatic event happens in their life, as you will come to understand if you attend their religious services for any length of time. Pretty much every preacher of note has at least one sermon about doubt. This is because no religion has come up with a comforting answer to the question, why do bad things happen to good people? However, religions attempt to inoculate against such a crisis of faith with stories of their god allowing his faithful followers to be tested in traumatic ways, and, when the tormented people maintain their faith, they're rewarded greatly for their steadfastness.
For example, in the Book of Job, Elohim boasts about his faithful servant Job, but Satan argues that Job is only faithful because Elohim has given him so many riches. So, Elohim allows Satan to take away Job's wealth, torture him severely, and even murder his children. Job's wife tells him to renounce his faith and die rather than remain faithful and be tortured, and, it's assumed that Job must be awfully angry at Elohim for allowing all these terrible things to happen to him. However, Job remains faithful, and, in the end, Elohim rewards Job's faith with new children and even more worldly possessions than he had before. A modern example is the Evangelical film God's Not Dead where an atheist philosophy professor who tries to convince all his students that the Christian god doesn't exist, but eventually lets it slip that he secretly does believe in the Christian god and is angry at him because his mother died even though he prayed for her to be saved (the professor is brutally killed shortly thereafter!).
Religious people often view apostasy through such a lens. To them, when a former religious person denounces their faith, they frequently assume something terrible must have happened to the person, but, unlike Job who remained faithful through the trial, the fallen believer decided to denounce their faith to punish the Christian god, even though they still secretly believe. It is for this reason I don't think atheists should respond to the accusation by saying "you can't be mad at something you don't believe;" due to their religion's indoctrination, they may believe the atheist secretly harbors a belief in their god and is lying about not believing. This is also why religious people don't usually say this phrase to someone who deconverted from a fundamentally different religion; you won't hear a Christian tell a former Hindu that they're just angry at the Christian god.
I think a better approach is to ask the religious person, "why do you think I'm angry at your god?" and, if they explain how people lose faith due to traumatic events, I can then explain to them that nothing that bad has ever happened in my life, instead, my atheism was brought about by learning more about various subjects like history, mythology, biology, physics, cosmology, geology, and philosophy. I've spoken to many other atheists about why they deconverted, and I find that this is by-and-large the most common reason. In fact, of the hundreds of atheists that I've met, not a single one has ever pointed to a traumatic event in their life as the cause of their deconversion. It's not about trauma, it's about education. When you confront their accusation in this manner, they can't so easily fall back on their preconceived belief of you being angry at their god, and must reassess their understanding of apostates.
