The myth of the angry atheist

This seems to be a common theme on the almighty Internet. Atheists are simply angry at God so they refuse to believe in Him. I see variations on this thought in nearly every corner of the web that I visit. To be fair, I also see some atheists responding to this nonsense with anger, or by belittling a person who professes faith. That's not cool, either.

I don't believe that there are gods or a God. I also don't really give a shit what others believe, whether it's the words of Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Jehovah, Heavenly Father, Vishnu, Zeus, or Waheguru. To each their own. I know a lot of people who strive to be the best person they can be because their faith drives them to do so. I know plenty of other people who are awful, terrible, mean-spirited people because they believe that doing so is just according to a book that they own.

But it doesn't matter to me. Atheism isn't a thing. It literally means "without God(s)." The absence of a belief doesn't define a person. Atheism certainly doesn't define me. The only thing that you know about me when you know I'm an atheist is that I don't believe in something that you believe in. That's all. Anything else that you think you can interpret from that is probably false.

Just as if I made assumptions about you because of whatever deity you believe in, making assumptions about non-believers is equally fraught with peril.