Do most atheists have an issue with religion more so than an issue with the existence of a creator?

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I’m not an atheist and as such I’m not sure why I’ve been asked to answer this, and against my better judgment I’ll take a stab at it anyway. If you’re an atheist and feel that I’m speaking out of turn about your non-belief, please feel free to let me know in the comments. I want to hear what you have to say.

In my experience, what atheists have an issue with is the exhortation to believe. Belief is severely abhorrent to the mindset that makes one an atheist. But it’s not just any kind of belief, after all, atheists can suspend disbelief in stories long enough to derive meaning from them.

I’m going to try to avoid framing this as atheists believing in something rather than not believing in something, but I’m going to fail at some point and I want you to carefully dissect how and why I failed at it.

I’m also going to avoid the topic of religion and of a Creator because they’re not really all that germane to what makes atheism what it is. Atheists have no problems with religions or a Creators so long as they’re safely within the constraints of a story that’s intended to be taken completely imaginatively. As soon as you let the supernatural out of the imagination bag, that’s when atheists take issue.

When you let the supernatural into the real world, you get a whole Pandora’s Box of related questions that all stem from the point of introduction. Atheists will talk about Christianity all day long until they’re called upon to actually consider the myths as real. It’s all fascinatingly historical, right up until that point. There’s a definite line across which you really don’t want to ask them to tread. The enjoyment ends precisely at that moment. It’s really quite breathtaking how fast that happens. It’s like watching a chemical reaction where like a gallon of a chemical goes from red to blue in an instant. You want to put a high-speed camera on it and watch it happen in slow motion.

Stories belong in the mind, and not in the real world. If I had to make one statement that defines the mindset behind atheism, that’s how I’d put it. Note that this is a statement of belief, not non-belief. I don’t know exactly how atheists will take this statement. Let me know in the comments.