That they know their duty and reject it, even while claiming indifference about the existence of God, only magnifies their rebellion against God. The unbeliever will deny that what God has to say about their current state applies to them, yet Scripture teaches us that the unbeliever...
- is deceitful and desperately sick (Jer. 17:9);
- is full of evil (Mark 7:21-23);
- loves darkness rather than light (John 3:19);
- is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek for God (Rom. 3:10-12);
- is helpless and ungodly (Rom. 5:6);
- is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1);
- is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. 2:3); and
- is a slave of sin (Rom. 6:16-20).
Appropriating our feeble emotions, e.g., love and hate, and then assuming these mimic God's love and hate is a mistake. By definition, if a person denies God, from God's perspective that person quite literally hates God.
AMR