What Is An Atheist...? (EVERYONE IS BORN ATHEIST)
What Is An Atheist...? (EVERYONE IS BORN ATHEIST)
Many people don't know it but everyone is born an Atheist, it's not until a child has religious beliefs Pushed on them with out any evidence to support them that they "think" their a Theist. The point is that a child doesn't have the ablility to even know what a religion is to make a educated decision, this is how most are Brain-Washed, they get you when you don't have any common sense. I remember going to Sunday School & Church On The Rock. They use to feed us Candy and Sweets just so we'll come, they also let us play arcade games before bible studies. Religion is just a function based on ones Geological Position, meaning that if a religious person was born in another part of the world, they would have been raised to believe in one of the other religions we have on our planet. EACH of which totally believes that their religion is the correct one, with all the rest of them being wrong. This is why we have Terrorism in the world today. A believe without evidence is a Dangerous thing.
Atheism is a doctrine that states that nothing exists but natural phenomena (matter), that thought is a property or function of matter, and that death irreversibly and totally terminates individual organic units. This definition means that there are no forces, phenomena, or entities which exist outside of or apart from physical nature, or which transcend nature, or are "super" natural, nor can there be. Humankind is on its own.
The following definition of Atheism was given to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203, 83 S. Ct. 1560, 10 L.Ed.2d (MD, 1963), to remove reverential Bible reading and oral unison recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the public schools.
"Your petitioners are Atheists and they define their beliefs as follows. An Atheist loves his fellow man instead of god. An Atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work NOW – here on earth for all men together to enjoy.
An Atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction, and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and enjoy it.
An Atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.
He seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man.
He wants an ethical way of life. He believes that we cannot rely on a god or channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter.
He believes that we are our brother's keepers; and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now."
"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called Insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called Religion." - Robert M. Pirsig,
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If atheism just means
If atheism just means passive lack of belief, then yes, everyone is born an atheist. But in this sense of 'atheism,' every unthinking thing is also an atheist, since it cannot have any beliefs, let alone beliefs about God. This is really a silly definition of atheism, since I think most of us have done a lot of reflection and thinking to realize why the theists' arguments don't work.
That's why there is a difference between simply lacking a belief, and understanding why some belief is implausible. What we call 'weak' agnosticism is like the former, while atheism is like the latter. In other words, atheism is not passive non-belief; it is active falsification of wrong beliefs.
It's like you're looking for the fountain of youth and you never find it: if your investigation is exhaustive, do you just say, "Well, I still don't know, so I guess my beliefs have not changed"? Or do you say, "From my investigation, I conclude that there is no fountain of youth"? Atheists don't just "not know" that there is no God (that is weak agnosticism): most of them have thought about and searched extensively for God, but found nothing. So to say that everyone is born an atheist is like saying that everyone is born understanding why the luminiferous aether does not exist.
Nor is Atheism just for the
Nor is Atheism just for the religious deconvertor. I do understand where your coming from with your argument here. Your basically saying that How could someone know there On The Top, when they've never been On The Bottom looking up? There is a phase in every childs life when they are fooled and do believe, and that effect is expected do to the Institutions and Marketing Practices of religion. But a person or child able to constantly stay above these beliefs or not be exposed to them for the jump-start is also good too. Not just for someone religious who has to dig themselves out of their "God Hole" to begin their quest to the finish line.
Religion is Clearly False so it's also good for people to start out at the finish-line with on this religious race track with "no distance" to move foward to begin with. To be a true Atheiest doesn't Only mean that you must believe lies first, them overcome them. But like I said this is usually the path most are destine to follow. Atheism is like standing on the Start & Finish-Line at the "same time", and coming to the fact that there was only imaginary distance on the track and knowing logically that there wasn't a race to begin with. Religion only makes you believe that your at the Finish-Line of Truth, when in reality they've just blindly added un-nessesary distance to the track causing them to Negatively Set Them Selves Back and persue a imaginary race for this supposed truth they claim.
And there really isn't a Complete "difference" between "lacking a belief" & "understanding why some belief is implausible" in this case because both concepts relate to each other & they acts more as a Conceptual Cause & Effect - Giving that "Lacking A Belief" is the natural reaction to "Understanding Why Some Belief Is Implausible". Agnosticism is the act of lacking a belief while at the Same Time beliving it in a sense.
But at the end I do understand where your coming from though...
Slimm,
The word "atheist" just
The word "atheist" just means "without belief." I don't think it's silly to define an atheist as someone who doesn't hold a belief in a god and stop there. The broadness and simplicity of the definition creates a big tent that a lot of different people can get into, while simultaneously leaving theists no real target to hit at. As soon as we start bolting all this materialist, humanist stuff on to atheism, we risk creating another religion (which is what the theists are always accusing us of) in which people are expected to hold certain views rather than just not hold one.
I don't mind sharing my viewpoint with unthinking things. Most of those things have been around a lot longer than humanity.
Lazy is a word we use when someone isn't doing what we want them to do.
- Dr. Joy Brown
Atheism, straight-up
I agree completely. Check out this quote: (http://bornatheist.com/1.html)
The atheist has nothing to prove.
As an atheist, I have no belief in god--not in the Jewish god, not in the Christian god,
not in the Muslim god and not in the Hindu gods. When comparing myself to a
religionist, I like to picture each of us holding an old mayonnaise jar. Perhaps when you
were a child you poked a few holes in the lid of a mayonnaise jar and collected insects
for observation. But in this instance, instead of putting insects in the jar, picture it full of
religious beliefs.
The religionist's jar contains all of the beliefs of his religion. For example, a Catholic's
jar would include heaven and hell, a bearded man in the sky and his human son, virgin
birth, walking on water, people rising from the dead, saints, miracles and the Pope as
the infallible spokesperson for god.
My jar is empty.
Often religionists feel atheists should prove there is no god. Perhaps because they
have been in power for so long, they think they can set the terms of the debate. But
atheists have no belief in god. My jar is empty. I have nothing to prove. All of the
shouting in the world will not change this fact. It is the religionist who has a jar full of
beliefs. And the religionist lacks facts to support his beliefs. So he labels them faith.
Religion requires faith because it has no facts.
End quote. But he does talk about adding more stuff on in a later chapter: http://bornatheist.com/6.html