Science Forums 2

[Boerseun]

Pretty simple, really.

Coming from a position of faith, where your only proof for the existence of the deity of your choice is merely your own conviction thereof, having your stance questioned will evoke a deep indignation. After all, facing the possibility that the bedrock of your life philosophy is built on mud might not be the most enjoyable scenario.

Also, of course, the phenomenon that I'd like to call "rapture-envy" comes into play.
Basically, you have a lot of people professing their belief in the same deity. Everybody prays, and everybody claims that their God listens to their prayers, and talks to them. And the only reason people claim that, is because God seems to be talking to everybody else but them. So they invent stories of how God spoke to them, because if God speaks to everybody else but the individual in question, then that individual will be seen as the "bad believer", and God does not like him/her. Which, of course, leads to all sorts of psychological issues through their lifetimes, because what they will never confess to their fellow believers, is that God, in fact, have never spoken to them. Why? What have they done that made God ignore them? God seems to speak to everyone else at Church?

...which of course just reinforces to impetus to lie about their own particular personal relationship with God.

A group of priests/pastors/bishops/imams at a religious gathering who have to go pray about a certain issue before they can issue their God-inspired decision regarding the matter, is a particularly laughable (and quite sad) example of it.

Imagining being a bishop, and pretending throughout your entire life that you've got a special relationship with God, that God actually does speak to you, simply because He seems to be talking to all the other bishops. And, of course, forgetting that the other bishops all make the same claim because you're doing it, and they are all envious of you.

I suspect that the internet trolling that you refer to in your original post is merely another extension of it, and just another manifestation of this particular envy. If anybody on the internet questions the existence of God, then it's a prime target for the religious insecure to pounce on it, because the bigger the troll, the more he reaffirms his imaginary relationship with his imaginary friend, and the more envious his buddies will be of him because he's demonstrating that he's a good soldier in defense of his chosen God. Which, of course, strengthens their resolve to become bigger and more active trolls on their own.

Science-oriented atheists are not as prone to trolling, because the burden of proof doesn't lie with them, and they're not envious of other people claiming to hear voices in their head.