@Typo-MAGAshiv I don't find "fallen or disillusioned believers grudge-fucking the concept of God out of resentment " all that common, and those who do exist stand ideologically and theologically far, far apart from those who comfortably identify as a-theist. Then as yet another entirely different concept, stands the absurd caricature of what an atheist must think and act like, that believers conjure up in their minds, more absurdly so in measure with how socially immersed they keep themselves in the church flock milieu. They end up with a conception of an evil, hateful, and antisocial person, largely an abstraction of the opposite of all the "good" aspects and traits of their fellow believers.

A few times in life, mostly when younger, someone got genuinely shocked to find out I was atheist. But... you're so nice/mellow/chill!!! I think the more evangelical strains of Christianity play this up in their sermons as an unethical shortcut to ingroup cohesion.

I've never been a believer at all, from childhood. No angst or conflict around it at all, just an emotionally neutral lack of need for the concept of God.

@Typo-MAGAshiv I don't think this really belongs here. Carnold is showing an image is a buff dude with a dumbell, cross and bible, telling a fat atheist slob smoking a cigarette that the god that is real is the one the fat slob hates. Carnold is quite catholic but I don't think he has really looked into the concept of mortification of the flesh. I don't see images of catholic saints getting buffed up because the pursuit of sanctity turns one away from this world and the flesh towards the next world and life everlasting. In fact many of the most famous saints actually welcomed illness and infirmity as being mortification and allowing them to suffer small passions of their own. Serious illness was seen as an opportunity to be tested to the max, a dry run for the real thing where you need to die in a state of grace if you are to go to heaven. There is a lot of room for thought between the supreme unction and death and a little training never hurt.

I agree that there is a bit of truth in the idea of the reactionary atheist, who hates the world and the judaeo christian ideas that underpin modern western society.