Hell is an empty shell

In response to Christine's post on faith and the existence of God, because she won't let me leave comments without a LiveJournal account:

I completely disagree.

Atheists don't demand that God be defined as a physical object. It is clear from most accounts (at least by monotheistic religions - not so much with the human-fucker Zeus and his ilk) that God is not a physical being. He is supposed to be a thing that exists beyond our understanding. And in this way, it is atheists, not believers, who are disadvantaged in the argument. How do you disprove the existence of something that isn't there... on purpose?

You must also understand that most "atheists" (disbelievers in God) are not at perfect opposition with "true believers" (whose faith prevails despite all evidence). Those we call atheists are mainly scientific thinkers who know how improbable God is, and therefore choose to live our lives as if there were no God. They do not proceed without evidence; indeed, by nature, they cannot.
We keep finding more and more explanations for things previously attributed to God. Some people believe in evolution and God as well. Oh, God just started off the process of evolution, then sat back and let it happen, did he? Why attribute it to him at all? We already have other explanations for how the evolutionary process started. Through science, we are continuously making God more and more redundant.

And I refute the claim that I have a hatred of belief. There are believers I know and like. Some I even love. Let them believe. Their choice. What I hate (and this is so terribly obvious I hardly need say it) are people who use belief to justify their evils. The morality of most religions is a flawed morality, developed by human men in times that are completely different to ours. Those who adhere to the morals of the Torah, the Bible or the Koran without thinking for themselves have allowed religion to retard their sensibilities. That's what I call crazy.

I agree that it is only fair to respect the beliefs of others, if their belief keeps them happy. However, if their belief teaches them not to respect you, then your respect is naturally going to hit its limit. And sometimes it doesn't keep them happy. Some believers live in a constant state of repression and guilt because they feel unworthy in the eyes of their God. And many remain deliberately uneducated because they feel that their Lord has all the answers - knowledge is a sin, as Eve discovered one hungry day. It is not for us to know the ways of the world. It is not for us to change God's will. We are to follow him and obey his decrees without question. God has all the reasons - so we don't need to employ any reason of our own.

I can't even pretend to respect that.