Can one hate something they don’t believe to exist?
Can one hate something they don’t believe to exist?
A central tenet of atheism is that they don’t hate God. Why? Because they don’t hold a belief that God exists. But does not believing something to exist preclude one from hating such thing?
Once sinners went to Hell, now the demagogues preaches that just believe in God and you go to Heavens and all ur sins are forgiven.
Now Hell doesn’t suddenly exist, thus it must exclude Lucifer not to exist, yet they hate him.
Hmm!
it’s an interesting question. I Think that you must Believe in something in some way to hate it. But we are digital. IOW there may be parts of an atheist that Believe in God, but overall they do not. In some moments the hate could arise from those portions that do.
But there is also the possiblity that hatred/fear - any strong emotions - of something might affect one’s consciousness of one’s belief.
You can see this in less otherworldly issues…like when adult children refuse to Believe one of their parents did something aweful, even if on some level they know it is true.
From a magical point of view, the god of Judaism/Christianity/Islam most certainly exists. As a particularly schizophrenic thought form, imbued woth power from thousands of years of fear, gult and oppression.
Saying that something doesn’t exist is a belief and while one cannot hate non-existence, having named the particular of that non-existence, one can hate the consequences following belief. Your mommy can be a devout christian supporting fundamentalist destructive ideas. You don’t hate your mommy, you hate the consequences of her beliefs. And if you look in the mirror… :-"
No. Obviously there are many types of atheist, and many reasons taken for the use of the term.
There a several reasons that the idea of god can attract strong emotional responses including hate. You do not have to accept or belief in a thing that you hate in this sense.
I don’t believe in racism, but also hate that. This also is a thing that exists in the mind of those that want to believe in it.
I Think you can hate something that does not exist, but that does kind of make you a bit dim. I don’t think hating something you know cannot possibly affect you in any way ever is anything more than a phobia, and indicative of paranoia. So yes you can hate something that has no chance of doing you harm, just like you can hate that long legged spider in the sink that cannot possibly do you harm, that phobia is of course more rational, the bugger is in the sink. However rationality and human beings do not sit well together, we can all hate anyone or anything that does not exist, 'cause at the end of the day we have far too much ability to hate, and not real reason to hate, it’s human nature in a nut shell. 
Do you not hold the belief that racism exists? Believing in something and believing something exists are two different things.
You are correct that saying something doesn’t exist is a belief. But there is a difference between believing God doesn’t exist and not holding the belief that God exists. Atheists are those who don’t hold the belief that God exists. In other words, their position on whether or not a god exists is null.
The long legged spider in the sink can clearly be seen to be real. The Christian God - as most Christians describe it - cannot be observed in reality.
I know. That’s why I said you can hate the IDEA of god.
I was using that to indicate you can hate a thing but not believe in it.
Put it another way. I do not think races exist, and I also hate the consequences of the belief. Much the same as god really.
Racism is the idea of race, god is the idea of god.
Spot on.
I’ve been trying to tell these turkeys this on several occasions.
Yes, one can’t hate something they don’t believe exist, because those that do believe are trying to kill that one and others.
If you are going to use the excuse that an atheist is one who merely has no belief, then what do you call the person who disbelieves, believes the contrary, that there is no God?
Does he fail to hold the belief that there is a god? If so, then he’s an atheist - and with respect to whether or not he’s an atheist, the fact he actively holds the belief that there is no god is subservient to the fact he doesn’t hold the belief that there is a god.
Emm… yeah…
…what I thought (that he attempts irrational semantics to justify his excuse).
This sentence is nonsense.
There are two variations of that:
I believe that there is no god.
I disbelieve that there is a god.
You could call them a hard or strong atheist. They also lack a belief in God, but have in addition a belief there is no God. Language is not a perfect logical set. Soemtimes terms can cover a few things. In fact this would cover at least related things. Some atheists do define atheism in the strong form. Others do not.
Quite that was in fact my point. 