Atheists often get told that we hate God.
Which is funny, because that’s like saying we hate unicorns and Bigfoot and Zeus.
But we can (feel free to substitute a less emotionally-charged word here) hate the concept of God. We can hate what it does to people.
As one girl writes:
I hate the concept of a god who would create imperfect humanity, tempt them when they don’t know the difference between good and evil, and then punish them and their descendents forever because they disobeyed when they didn’t even yet know what that was. I hate a god who would condone genocide and rape. I hate a god who would have rebellious teenagers and gay people stoned. I hate a god who would have the power to create the universe, but not the motivation to intervene in it to prevent suffering. I hate a god who would punish someone infinitely for a finite crime.
I hate what the concept of a god does to people. I hate how it makes them kill others who do not believe the same things as they do. I hate how it stifles their intellectual curiosity. I hate how it represses their natural sexuality. I hate how it wastes their time and their lives.
But there is a long list of problems that results directly because of a belief in one god or another… and it seems fair to place blame on the dogmatic versions of faith that many religious leaders tell their congregations to follow.