Are people born inherently atheist?

[psychoslice]

All children are both athiest, they are then conditioned to believe in whatever they are conditioned to believe.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

If one doesnt follow a deity or lacks belief, one is simply a atheist. Last time I checked babies lack any belief in a deity.

So do pumpkins, gerbils, and chocolate bars. You find it meaningful to describe these as atheists?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It is not _added, because it is already there...

Yes, it's already there because infants are capable of holding any beliefs. Just like rocks and tulips. Do you find it meaningful to describe these as atheists?

 

[Benoni]

All God's people are born with no ability to see God

 

[Kilgore Trout]

All God's people are born with no ability to see God

Same applies to us human beings.

 

[Benoni]

Same applies to us human beings.

Same thing.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Same thing.

Interesting conjecture.

 

[Me Myself]

I don't think that is a fair assessment. "God" is far too arbitrary a concept for its natural absence to be considered conjecture.

God is a concept precisely arbitrary enough as to believe such

The way I see it, they are directly experiencing godhood without any concept for it.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't know. It's like asking if a person stranded on a deserted island with no contact with the outside world would have a concept of God or Divinity. Anyway, weren't humans originally animists? So apparently spirituality of a sort is completely natural and not culturally engrained.

 

[Sunstone]

I imagine some of us are born with character traits that predispose us to skepticism, which could then lead to atheism.

However, to suggest that we are born atheists seems meaningless to me in so far as atheism is understood to be a belief in the absence of deity, and meaningful only in so far as atheism is understood to be a lack of belief in deity -- much as a squirrel lacks a belief in deity.

Put differently, the argument over whether we are born atheists seems to me to depend on how you define atheist.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I imagine some of us are born with character traits that predispose us to skepticism, which could then lead to atheism.

However, to suggest that we are born atheists seems meaningless to me in so far as atheism is understood to be a belief in the absence of deity, and meaningful only in so far as atheism is understood to be a lack of belief in deity -- much as a squirrel lacks a belief in deity.

Put differently, the argument over whether we are born atheists seems to me to depend on how you define atheist.

Excellent summation. I suppose if someone defines a squirrel as an atheist, then it makes perfect sense for them to also define an infant as an atheist.

 

[Sunstone]

Anyway, weren't humans originally animists? So apparently spirituality of a sort is completely natural and not culturally engrained.

There's quite a bit of science nowadays -- some of it conflicting -- on what kind and how much of a "spirituality" we're born with. I myself don't think we're born with a god concept, but at most, only with traits that might result in our having something of a predisposition to a god concept.

 

[outhouse]

So do pumpkins, gerbils, and chocolate bars. You find it meaningful to describe these as atheists?

Do you call people that believe in gravity as gravitationist?

Thats the same exact arguement your making.


Your making way too much out of the definition of who is not a theist.

 

[outhouse]

I don't know. It's like asking if a person stranded on a deserted island with no contact with the outside world would have a concept of God or Divinity. Anyway, weren't humans originally animists? So apparently spirituality of a sort is completely natural and not culturally engrained.

It is ingrained through evolution as a survival trait linked to parental love, in some aspects.

 

[outhouse]

in so far as atheism is understood to be a belief in the absence of deity, .

Except as it has been argued for as long as I know, Atheism is not a belief.

It is the lack of belief in theism.

Its a either or. You have theism or you dont. Others just want to complicate the definition. Theist and the confused IMHO.

 

[Sunstone]

Your making way too much out of the definition of who is not a theist.

The definition? Don't you mean whose definition? Seems to me there's more than one definition of atheist in this thread.

 

[Sunstone]

Except as it has been argued for as long as I know, Atheism is not a belief.

It is the lack of belief in theism.

Its a either or. You have theism or you dont.

Your verbal imperialism has been duly noted...and rejected.

 

[Thana]

Except as it has been argued for as long as I know, Atheism is not a belief.

It is the lack of belief in theism.

Its a either or. You have theism or you dont. Others just want to complicate the definition. Theist and the confused IMHO.

I don't know.
I think Athiesm is a belief. Not a lack of one.
An Athiest believe's there is no God,
Without evidence to the contrary.
So it is a belief.

They disagree with other beliefs, And prefer the belief of no deity. They are actively believing in nothing. They aren't lacking belief.

 

[Willamena]

Except as it has been argued for as long as I know, Atheism is not a belief.

It is the lack of belief in theism.

Its a either or. You have theism or you dont. Others just want to complicate the definition. Theist and the confused IMHO.

A dictionary definition, which is necessarily objective (they all are), doesn't make any ontological equivalencies.

 

[Me Myself]

I don't know.
I think Athiesm is a belief. Not a lack of one.
An Athiest believe's there is no God,
Without evidence to the contrary.
So it is a belief.

They disagree with other beliefs, And prefer the belief of no deity. They are actively believing in nothing. They aren't lacking belief.

The oxford dictionary defines atheism as both the belief that there is no gods or the lack of belief in gods.

With theecessity of these happening in a person (thus, rocks cannot be atheists because they lack belief.)

Beliefs that happen with evidence are still beliefs.