Reply #10: For one thing, an atheist would not mock god.

[RaleighNCDUer]

He might mock other people who believe in god - that's not the same thing.

For another thing, I have a counter anecdote: I got in a heated discussion one day with a guy who firmly believed that the end days were here, that the perfect red calf to be sacrificed at the rebuilt, rededicated Temple had been born, and would not believe it would not happen - never mind that construction on the Temple has not begun, and can't begin until the Mosque of the Dome of the Rock is demolished, and that by the time the Temple was completed the calf would have died of old age.

I said, 'Never gonna happen" and challenged god to strike me dead right there if I was wrong (the guy actually stepped back). It's been seven years now, the calf is no longer a calf, and I'm still waiting for that lightning bolt.

But I never got written up in any newspaper for it.