The sky bully

TV producer Joss Whedon one said he was an atheist because he doesn't believe in "the sky bully." I mention this only because it is a typical atheist misunderstanding of theism. Of course, one can find people who say they believe in God and mean by that some old man up in the sky telling everyone what to do, just as one can find people who say they accept Darwin's theory and think it implies that fish grew legs because they wanted to get up out of the water and eat plants.

But let us look at what is sophisticated theist says about his encounter with the divine. Here is Dante:

"O abundant grace, where I presumed to fix my sight on the Eternal Light, so long, that my sight was wearied!
In its depths I saw in-gathered, and bound by Love into one volume, all things that are scattered through the universe, substance and accident and their relations, as if joined in such a manner that what I speak of is One simplicity of Light. I think I saw the universal form, of that bond, because, in saying it, I feel my heart leap, in greater intensity of joy."

Does anyone out there think it accurate to characterize Dante's encounter with the divine as, "He met a sky bully"?

Whedon and his many fellow travelers simply don't know what philosophical theism is.