Also a good point. But I disagree that one is born an atheist. I don't think having a lack of belief makes you an atheist - having a lack of belief about god does. No baby has access to that. They simply lack belief - which is a state of being that is a human's natural state before the mind steps in and changes it.
So atheism is a lack of belief in gods, babies have no belief in gods and they aren't atheist? See, society has everyone thinking atheism is a stance, a decision, a label, etc.. It isn't. It's a word to define no belief in gods. If a person doesn't believe in gods, whether they are a newborn or 90 years old, they are atheist. Obviously there is a difference between an atheist who has rejected the faith of his childhood and an baby, but the term atheism is very simple. Just because we put personal emphasis on the word based upon other factors, doesn't change it's definition.
It's a subtle thing I grant you - you could almost say we're splitting hairs here, but a baby doesn't understand the concept of belief, so how can it be said to be an atheist merely by default? Yes, it has no belief in god, but it has no belief, period. Surely one must be capable of belief before one can be labelled as not having it?
I agree with post #2. Your just getting older and exploring options. I thought the same thing about weed and other things at your age. If your in school now, study hard. Your brain is at it's all time peark for taking in knowledge.
There you again with the term "labelled." Atheism isn't a label, I mean it is because we make it one, but by defintion it's a descriptive term. You could have labelled me as a "white" baby when I was born, but it wouldn't change the fact that my skin was still white and therefore saying I was white was still descriptive of me. We are splitting hairs a little here, but by pure simple definition of atheism (which doesn't require being taught any belief and then rejected it) babies are atheist.
atheism is analogous to a non-astronaut , a non-hippo and a nonstampcollector. Of course babies are nonstampcollectors ,because they have not collected stamps , so atheism is simply the lack of belief ,but doesn't require an understanding. Therefore, we're literally born atheists.
Ok, you win. babies are atheist. Wait... just a moment...I think I'll have one more go. What about Jewish babies? Jews are born Jewish, so by definition they can't be atheist.
I think you're thinking the jews as a race , then yes (but not scientifically since there's no such thing as a race). They're not born with any belief of the any Judaic principles. Jew can be referred to as a racial thing or a religious thing ,so you're equivocating it.
LOL, you're fun to chat with esseff. Technically the term Jewish comes from their religion, Judaism, so ethnically we can still call them a Jewish baby because we use the term that way since so many of them had no nation for so long, but it's technically wrong and a Jewish baby would still be atheist.
Talk about taking a sarcastic quote way too deep, it was a joke about how the idea for some people (religious) that people dont choose their beliefs or change them (faith and sexuality).
.... Anyway, it's not the weed its that your old enough to start making your own choices in judgment. Weed may have helped you to take the time to think through things in order to come to this decision but its not like a chemical made you that way. Sent from my iPhone 5 using GC Forum
Normally, when people are being sarcastic and it isn't overly obvious, they use the little sarcasm smilies. As many wackos as I've seen on these forums, I don't automatically assume such a vague statement is sarcastic, especially if just one sentence, unless I know the person making the statement. And as 420Neverforget said, it led to intelligent discussion, so who cares.