Robertson is nothing more then a senile uninformed nuscience and not worth the time of day. Does he not know that these racist right wing aryan types are devoted followers of right wing [re-700 club types] christians. 

 Then again, the Sikhs would consider Pat an atheist so he just added himself to the list of suspects...

I agree. As much as the religious instiutions would love to return us to the Dark Ages and burning people at the stake, they are slowly but surely losing their stranglehold on society.

Having been a formerly fanatically religious person, I feel some sympathy for some of the sincere theists (none for the ones that use it for bigotry and hatred) but I have zero sympathy for their leaders and pastors that make money off of the ignorance of people by pushing agendas of fear, self-abasement and outright lying.

As far as using the word "hate" in reference to God, for me it is YES AND NO.

Depending on context.

I hate ANY god concept in human history, just like if I went to a bad movie or read a bad book. I cannot hate Micky Mouse or Lex Luthor either.

I also hate especially as a claim AND A CLAIM ONLY, the logic of the Omni god claim. It conflicts with being all powerful and what we see in reality, which can only make such a claimed being inept or malicious.

But in a human rights point of view, I cannot hate individual people merely because they may hold a claim I hate. My mom is Catholic, but what might drive each other nuts about each other, religion would not be our first division. She is a neat freak, and well, there was a sit com called "Odd Couple" in which I would not be Felix. But we have never stopped  loving  each other.

But I warn about leaving people alone. It is not a matter of getting along, which all of humanity should want. Just as important as an individual's rights to make a claim, is the ability of others outside that claim to kick the tires.

hate the christian and muslim god concepts. I agree god doesn't exist. But the ideas of god these groups promote are profoundly distasteful. 

Curiously, before I found RRS I spent many years in private, seething atheism part of which manifested itself in an overwhelming and irrational desire to kill 'god'. I used to break into a sweat and shake with the strength of it.  

Perhaps as a former believer who grew up in a demented church family I found it more than usually easy to activate my god delusion, even if only for the momentary relief of imagining my fingers around its throat...

Needless to say, after a few years here talking to actual human beings of quirk and curiosity, I'm almost normal.

I can honestly say I've not fantasized about murdering any non existent gods these past 12 months.  

P.S. I know 3 other atheist PK's (preacher's kids). Each is the only atheist in their fundamentalist christian family and each is segregated by disbelief and expected to burn in hell. All loathe the purported nature of the monstrous christian god with visceral and consuming intensity unusual in non-believers. One is the cousin of my brother's wife and both her parents are loquacious pastors. At a family gathering, as the religious palaver flowed I could see the confusion and distaste writ large on her face. She turned to me at one especially galling point and said with feeling 'this is just total fucking bullshit'. She had tears in her eyes. I knew exactly how she felt. 

Not a preacher's kid, but I DID grow up in a fanatically religious home and was fanatically religious. My situation is EXACTLY like you described above. I have to admit that I do hate the concepts of the god of christianity and islam.

I almost feel like the church stole all of my childhood and younger years. Every time I had a doubt or a qualm about  the teachings of the church, I got treated like some sort of leper and actually believed that I deserved it.

It is miserable when you are surrounded by nothing but religious people and they are all telling you that you are insane and evil for having doubts. The reason being, for a long time, I thought they were right. I remember during my teen years praying and praying for these doubts to be removed and when they intensified, I truly thought that I was damned to hell.

So yeah, maybe I don't  actually hate a non-existent deity in the sky, but I do HATE the doctrines that I feel have destroyed many lives.

  How could someone who embraces a form of theistism ( Christianity ) be considered an atheist by someone else from another form of theism ( Sikhism ) ?    Do fans of the Washington Redskins not consider fans of the Green Bay Packers to also be football fans ...just because they embrace a different team ?

  The Sikhs may consider Pat Robertson to be guilty of worshiping the wrong god but that in no way places him within our atheist camp.  We are atheists because we reject the entire god concept as a whole, not because we selectively reject or embrace particular sects.  Theists may reject other forms of theism but they haven't forfeited their own god-belief, so they are not atheists.

Harley - this is exactly me, too. I spent long years agonizing over my inability to put an end to my legitimate doubts. Personally, I just don't believe in invisible beings with agency of any sort at all. Further, original sin is really questioning priestly assertion. The act of learning implicit in the Tree of Knowledge mythology has been deliberately dressed up as the greatest possible sin that humans could perpetrate. It was not about ignoring what god said, it was about us being denied the right to know the truth.