Apparently, atheists are driven by hate and anger

Religious folk reacted with the fury of Caps Lock when the University of Wisconsin's Secular Student Alliance affiliate sent a mass email inviting interested students to join.  Though many other student groups use the very same method to get the word out that they exist, some apparently found the existence of an atheist-agnostic-freethinker group offensive.

Then, this article turned up on my Google Sparks:

When natural man embraces atheism, you often end up with a ticking time bomb. The seething anger lies just beneath the surface for many atheists. Even for those “sophisticated atheists” who are able to put up a good front for the public, their “inner workings” are usually filled with rage against God and Christians.


In that sense, atheists unwittingly help to prove the truth of Christianity by their hatred for it. Jesus told his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18) Real Christians don’t hate atheists. Real Christians love atheists. That is the supernatural grace of God at work in the life of a believer. Real atheists, on the other hand, have an inner hatred for Christ that gets directed at believers. That is the natural result of man rejecting God as His Creator.

Another choice segment:

If everyone in the world was an atheist, the population would shrink drastically and violently. Human arrogance and anger doesn’t put up with too much before it goes ballistic and begins to wipe out the “enemy.”

And then there's this gem:

If you are an atheist, here are 11 words you won't say from your heart unless you choose to open your mind to be a "freethinker" for Christ: "Lord Jesus, forgive me for my hatred toward You and others." Wow! You would rather die than sincerely pray those words wouldn't you? That's because a hatred for Jesus fills your heart, as it would mine without Christ. You tell yourself it is just unbelief in Jesus. That is only the "fruit of it." The "root of it" is hatred towards God.

Here I thought that the old "atheists hate God" argument had been beaten to death and beyond, and yet it pops up again on a major Christian news site.  I have to wonder if the author, Dan Delzell, has ever met, read the writings of, or heard a speech by an atheist; his understanding of how atheists think seems to come exclusively from the Bible.

I could write a long-winded post about how wrong his assertions are, and why they're wrong; that would be a waste of my time, as this topic has been covered in depth by those who have tread before me.  So I'll keep it short and sweet.

First off: atheists do not believe that any god exists.  You can't hate what doesn't exist.  I would hope that this isn't a difficult concept.  Now let's move on.

Secondly: one look at the sheer vastness of the universe shows us how insignificant we are on the scale of the cosmos.  We aren't our own "gods" - we are ephemeral chemical reactions on the surface of a speck of space dust who have managed to develop intelligence.  Realizing this fact is the exact opposite of arrogance.  You know what would be arrogant?  Believing that all of this was created just for little old young us.

Lastly, I will concede you one point: a lot of atheists do have a great deal of antipathy toward religion, especially so in the West toward Christianity.  However: this isn't because we're angry at some long dead (and possibly legendary) cult leader named Yeshua; it's because we think that organized religion (and the political power it wields) is an absolute farce.

One final note on the 11-word prayer: you won't hear a sincere prayer out of me because it is not possible to sincerely lie.  This argument, like the rest of the column, does not make sense.