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From time to time, I run across something really stupid that people say about atheists. So, as I do, this post will grow as time goes on. Some of the things I hear are just misconceptions people have simply because they have not taken the time to think about what they are believing. Other things are just plain propaganda put out by religious or right-wing individuals or groups to intentionally MISrepresent atheism because their own beliefs are not sustainable. So, here we go:
Here is one that I hear with some frequency. Somehow or another, a failure to believe in the existence of a god is supposed to mean that you hate or really hate their particular god. Atheists by definition do not believe that any gods (or the supernatural for that matter) exist. So, how does one hate something that one does not think exists? A person who is upset at a god is not an atheist. That person is just a mad theist.
I am not aware of any adult that believes that there is a real Santa Claus. So, does that mean that they hate Santa Claus? I do not think so. They just know that he is not sitting up at the North Pole just waiting for that one night in December to be nice to them!
This same nonsense can be found in the movie "God's NOT Dead" put out in 2014, by Pure Flix Entertainment. In that movie, a student defends his god by conning his professor into admitting that he hates god (the professor's mother died and left him alone despite his prayers). An atheist believes that prayers are not answered because there is no god to answer prayers.
As an aside, "God's NOT Dead" has a whole raft of inaccurate nonsense about atheists in it - remember it is just a fictional movie - and, if I ever get the fortitude up to watch it again, I could fill this post up really quick. They have even come out with "God's NOT Dead 2" which I have not watched. Richard Carrier has posted some thoughts about that movie on his website.
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