Does God like (or respect) atheists?

God loves everything and everybody unconditionally. That’s why God is God.

The New Testament God appears to like everybody.
The Old Testament God appears to be a little more judgmental

@zenvelo so why did he wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah?

@elbanditoroso
That’s the Old Testament God

He changed later. In fact, some scholars think they might be different Gods, that sort of got merged by the Ancients into the same one.

If there was a “God,” and he didn’t like Atheists so much, he would have added at least one more Commandment to the list of Ten, denoting such.

Is being burnt eternally in Hell an expression of God’s love?

God loves his children/creations, which all of us are, but he is also a proponent of choice.
Sodom was a representation of the destructive consequences of choosing sin.

@kritiper That’s like #1 on the commandments, which as far as I know, is for Believers only.

1. I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.

COMMANDS: faith, hope, love, and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer.
FORBIDS: idolatry; superstition; spiritism; tempting God; sacrilege; attendance at false worship.

If God didn’t love atheists, why did He (or She) make so many of them?

The Lord thy God is a jealous God!
Is that just from a movie? :D
Anyway, he does tend to smite the shite out of non believers, so my answer is no, he does not like them.

Me, on the other hand, he loves!
Agnostic cheeky bugger here lol

I believe He does love Atheists. He probably doesn’t like their choices, but allows them to make them. Much like a good parent, you will not always like what your kids believe or do, but you will always love them….even when they are believe they know more than the parents.

Hey, it’s not a two-party deisphere, just Old Testament and New Testament Judeo-Christian to chose from.
We’ve got oodles of others to add to the menu from Zoroastrian to Buddhist and Taoist. even animist religions which would consider the earth our god(dess).
Most of those gods don’t give a hoot about your beliefs, except that the extent to which you engage with them will determine how they manifest in your life.
If you don’t ‘believe’ you get bupkus.

@ucme Nope, it’s in the bible. Exodus 34:14.

@seawulf575 GA.

@KNOWITALL That isn’t even close. Atheism isn’t a “god” to believe in or to put before another.

@KNOWITALL Oh, it is?
Cool, knew you would come through :-)

Love and respect are the insulting attributes slapped on an omnipotent God by one insignificant segment in its array of creations. It is one of the endless troublesome consequences that must come with the gift/curse of reason. Once you turn a significant number of creatures endowed with abstract thought loose on the world, everything from sticks and snakes through God And the devil or nothing at all will be certified by SOMEONE as devine. Atheists are simply a consequence of reasoning.

I believe if there is a God he loves all of his children. Can you imagine not loving your child only because he didn’t worship you? I think what parents want most is for their children to be good citizens, happy, and loving.

I think God cares about our actions within society. Society at both the micro and macro level. Our families, our community, and the world.

Timothy 5:8 says “but if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” I hold this up as showing the importance of being responsible to ones family, and the family is a micro unit of greater society. The atheist is mentioned here, and the atheist is actually above someone who shirks his familial responsibilities. I guess maybe the atheist is still low in the totem pole though? I don’t know.

I don’t care about what a deity thinks. For those of you who think that “god” loves any of us, I have NO idea what would lead anyone to that conclusion…
Volunteer at a children’s cancer ward, and tell me about God’s love…

@JLeslie So “God” is concerned about the welfare of his children. I guess that is why he allows children to suffer.

Or anyone else who suffers…
I would kill, or die, for my loved ones… “God” either doesn’t exist, doesn’t care, or enjoys suffering.

@JLeslie GA. Another example is the story of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11–32. Jesus gives us this parable to show us how God feels about loving others and especially our children. The prodigal son was the younger of two sons of a wealthy man. He was fed up with his father and his family and demanded his inheritance now so he could go enjoy life. He had hard words with his father who gave him his portion of the inheritance. The son went off and blew it all, becoming a pauper. He eventually came back home to ask his father for a job. The father threw a party for his son’s safe return. The older son was a bit rankled by this but the father told him the important part was that child was safe. He said the older son would get his inheritance because he had remained faithful but a son/brother that strayed and returned was a cause for celebration.
The father did not hate the son that left…ever. He only wanted what was best for his children all the time.

@kritiper That has always been an interesting question. I can tell you I believe in God and that He does love us. But he doesn’t run our lives like we are nothing but marionettes. He has given us what we need and has given us guidance for living well. Not every one will make the same choice, have the same opportunities, etc. Sickness is part of life since we are mortal. There are things that we see as wrong and we want to blame God. But I don’t believe He makes the choices that lead to many issues. Take war for example. Is it God that makes the choices to build weapons and use them against one another? No. Is it God that makes the choices for a national leader to try for domination over others? No. Because God gives us free will, we will always make bad choices.
Much like a parent with children, He tries to teach us right from wrong and give us a basis for how to deal with one another. He tries to teach us how to deal with adversity in our lives. And surprisingly, if you look at what He is telling us, it’s all pretty good advice. You know my step daughter had a drug addiction. She made the choices to get involved with these drugs. I didn’t teach her that or tell her it was okay. But I didn’t control her life like a puppet either, so she got to make those choices. My job as a parent was to keep loving her and try to guide her to a better life. But I could never make those choices for her…she had to make them for herself. Did that mean I wasn’t concerned about her welfare? No. Did it mean I didn’t care or enjoyed watching her suffer? No. But it did mean I had to think of ways of changing her heart.

More BS….

Possibly. I’m not God. I’m a flawed human, just like the rest of us. But it is an opinion that seems to work for me.

^Would you gladly watch us die, if you have the power to stop it?
Would you marvel at our world wars, famine, and disease?...
If, you were God?....

God has more respect for atheists than for phonies such as President Trump and his supporters.

@MrGrimm888 dying is part of life. In fact, by His design, it is how you come back home to him, so to speak. I would marvel at all the things you listed as well. Much as I have marveled at some of the truly stupid and destructive things my kids have done over the years. But think about what you are saying: You believe God should step in and control us like slaves. He would make sure wars didn’t occur, or famine or disease…but what would he do to anyone that stepped outside his desires? He listed 10 commandments in the Old Testament. Let’s say he was the controlling sort. So he will make sure you don’t have disease or wars or famine…but in return, if you have another God before him (or no god in the case of Atheists), he can toss you in the lake of fire. If you covet your neighbor’s stuff, off you go. If you kill, steal, cheat, lie….any of them…off you go. Is that what you want out of God? Is that how you would deal with your own children? Treat them as little slaves but give them a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs?

^I have too much respect for you to give my response.

Peace n love.

@kritiper I don’t believe in God, so I’m no authority. I also can’t make sense of the suffering, so basically I think like you do. However, if there is a God, I do think we are all His children, even us atheists.

I don’t know and neither do you. (Militant Agnostic).

Which god?

As per @MrGrimm888 , more BS…
@JLeslie If your aunt was plumbed differently she’d be your uncle. Anything could be possible if we want to think it so.

^It’s not BS. Your mind controls everything. I respect your opinion, but you are capable of much more than you’re body tells you. Or what, you observe.

Mind over matter…Scientifically, it isn’t logical. But, it’s true….

@augieLemmon
I’ve made lots of crappy food.
Does that count?

Though I guess God would
probably be a kickass chef.