{"id":577,"date":"2011-01-10T12:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/just-how-angry-can-one-be-at-a-literary-creation.html"},"modified":"2011-01-10T12:17:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T12:17:00","slug":"just-how-angry-can-one-be-at-a-literary-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/just-how-angry-can-one-be-at-a-literary-creation.html","title":{"rendered":"Just How Angry Can One Be At A Literary Creation?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

CNN reported last week about Case Western University research psychologist Julie Exline\u2019s study about anger at God<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re angry at your doctor, your boss, your relative or your spouse, you can probably sit down and have a productive conversation about it. God, on the other hand, is probably not available to chat.<\/p>\n

And yet people get angry at God all the time, especially about everyday disappointments, finds a new set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just religious folks, either. People unaffiliated with organized religion, atheists and agnostics also report anger toward God either in the past, or anger focused on a hypothetical image \u2013 that is, what they imagined God might be like\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I decided to actually take the survey and see what kind of anger was being elicited from us non-theists.<\/p>\n

I answered a whole lot of questions about my beliefs and personality.\u00a0 I also detected one big problem with the survey.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve self-identified as a non-believer, the survey continues to ask questions about God as if he really exists.\u00a0 It does preface this by telling us to discuss our \u201canger\u201d toward a hypothetical god or what we imagine a god to be, but the god presented is described as a real being throughout the survey.\u00a0 This makes the questions confusing.\u00a0 The survey asks about God in a person-like way, not as a literary creation.<\/p>\n

The questions about God\u2019s affect on me personally were easy.\u00a0 I answered \u201cnot at all affected.\u201d\u00a0 When it posed questions regarding my estimation of God\u2019s \u201cpersonality,\u201d the questions were trickier.\u00a0 In answering, I indicated my interpretation of the character\u2019s many negative or contradictory qualities.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident that strong believers would not see God that way.\u00a0 Does that make me look like I\u2019m angrier than them and that this is my motivation for rejecting theism?\u00a0 Anyone who engages with important fiction summons up judgments about the characters.\u00a0 This is in no way a delusion that such characters are or were real.<\/p>\n

If we non-theists have any real anger, it\u2019s directed at the people who cause pain and harm in their gods\u2019 names.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CNN reported last week about Case Western University research psychologist Julie Exline\u2019s study about anger at God. If you\u2019re angry at your doctor, your boss, your relative or your spouse, you can probably sit down and have a productive conversation about it. God, on the other hand, is probably not available to chat. And yet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,30],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism","tag-non-theism"],"yoast_head":"\nJust How Angry Can One Be At A Literary Creation?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CNN reported last week about Case Western University research psychologist Julie Exline\u2019s study about anger at God. 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