Cause of atheism, Anger at God? (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, January 26, 2015, 14:50 (3371 days ago)

A study finds atheists and agnostics have anger as a cause of their opinion about God. Judging by the way Dawkins rails against religion, it colors his opinions,and perhaps it is true. Certainly religion's description of God can make some folks angry, all powerful, all controlling, etc. Thoughts?-"A new set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finds that atheists and agnostics report anger toward God either in the past or anger focused on a hypothetical image of what they imagine God must be like. Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University and the lead author of this recent study, has examined other data on this subject with identical results. Exline explains that her interest was first piqued when an early study of anger toward God revealed a counterintuitive finding: Those who reported no belief in God reported more grudges toward him than believers.-"At first glance, this finding seemed to reflect an error. How could people be angry with God if they did not believe in God? Reanalyses of a second dataset revealed similar patterns: Those who endorsed their religious beliefs as “atheist/agnostic” or “none/unsure” reported more anger toward God than those who reported a religious affiliation"-https://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2014/09/06/study-explores-whether-atheism-is-rooted-in-reason-or-emotion/