What is your default position when you're a baby?

[bobhikes]

This.

And what else besides god do parents force feed their children. Is it only God? That would be odd force feeding god and nothing else.

 

[Demonslayer]

That's your opinion and your entitled to it but it does mean it is correct.

Do you actually think if we raised 100 babies separately, without influence from the outside world, with parents who never spoke a word about Gods at all...that if we brought these 100 children back into a room when they were 18 years old, 90 of them would be able to tell you about Yahweh, Jesus, and how when you died some aspect of you was either damned forever or brought to a paradise?

 

[Demonslayer]

And what else besides god do parents force feed their children. Is it only God?

No of course not. But when asked why babies end up believing in God, it's because their parents fed them the story. It's not God contacting babies.

That would be odd force feeding god and nothing else.

It would be odd, and it would result in an extremely hungry baby!

 

[Twilight Hue]

Do you actually think if we raised 100 babies separately, without influence from the outside world, with parents who never spoke a word about Gods at all...that if we brought these 100 children back into a room when they were 18 years old, 90 of them would be able to tell you about Yahweh, Jesus, and how when you died some aspect of you was either damned forever or brought to a paradise?

Yep.

Exactly why as well as proving, that theism is an introduced ideology that requires reinforcement compared with the natural neutrality which everyone starts out with.

A massively huge defeat for thiests trying to say God is intrinsically known right from the start.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

If it doesn't believe in anything, it can't believe in God.

So, rocks are atheists, then?

 

[PackJason]

So, rocks are atheists, then?

Rocks are rocks. I know the point you're trying to make, but it's entirely nonsensical.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Rocks are rocks. I know the point you're trying to make, but it's entirely nonsensical.

Exactly. Just as nonsensical as calling babies atheists. No fundamental difference.

 

[PackJason]

No fundamental difference.

Except one is a human and the other is a friggin' rock?

Yeah ... same thing ...

 

[Acim]

I chose 4 responses cause the poll allows for it. Those are (in order they appear in the poll):

> I don't remember whether I'm a Theist or Atheist when I'm a baby. Added note: I would just change it grammatically to say when I was a baby.

> Although I don't remember, but I believe I'm a Theist when I'm a baby. Added note: Perhaps a bit convoluted in explaining this, but might be as simple as understanding if a baby has 'belief in existence' (at all).

> If only there is a technology which can read the thought of babies and communicate with them.

> Other: Probably whatever arguments I would have for the 2nd selection above would fit here, but additional note would be: why does it matter? Or why do intellectual theists/atheists care?

 

[bobhikes]

Do you actually think if we raised 100 babies separately, without influence from the outside world, with parents who never spoke a word about Gods at all...that if we brought these 100 children back into a room when they were 18 years old, 90 of them would be able to tell you about Yahweh, Jesus, and how when you died some aspect of you was either damned forever or brought to a paradise?

No not specifically Yahweh or Jesus but 90 percent of them would have a name for God. Especially if you are correct and there is no god people taught themselves about God so that more than 99% of the world believed in God at one time. Those number seem highly unlikely so why do 90% + have knowledge of God. What else does 90% + of the world have knowledge of? I can only think of one solution God wants you to be able to know God. This one surprised me there are whole countries that know nothing about WWII and Hitler and yet 90% of the world know about God.

 

[LuisDantas]

And what else besides god do parents force feed their children. Is it only God? That would be odd force feeding god and nothing else.

No, a lot of other things are force fed as well. Certain ideologies. Values. Language.

 

[Quintessence]

Isn't it more like they should be discarded because while lacking a clear meaning, they are often assumed (in conflicting ways) to hold some anyway?

Or, by another perspective, that the assumption that there is a clear meaning that is shared by many or most people should be challenged so that a true multicultural society can be consolidated?

That works too, I suppose. Well, all the methods work in some sense or another... and fail in some other sense or another.

I'll confess I'm simply sick to death of ludicrous notions like (a)theist babies. Doesn't help that I hate babies.

 

[Augustus]

I'll confess I'm simply sick to death of ludicrous notions like (a)theist babies. Doesn't help that I hate babies.

That's a bit harsh. It's not their fault they are (a)theists

 

[McBell]

Except one is a human and the other is a friggin' rock?

Yeah ... same thing ...

Please be so kind as to explain to us the difference between a baby and a rock where it concerns belief in god.

 

[HonestJoe]

If they don't have this alleged passive characteristic of weak atheists, then they cannot be weak atheists.

At that point I was referring to people in general, not just babies. The point is that belief (or lack of belief) is something you have, not something you do. It's misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of atheism as something people do that leads people to think (or demand) that babies can't be atheist.

 

[bobhikes]

No, a lot of other things are force fed as well. Certain ideologies. Values. Language.

These ideologies, values and language are similar world wide and through out time. The concept of God can be traced far back in human history and is spread throughout the world. What language, values or ideologies do the same. I can say murder is wrong and that traces back like god but I would consider that from evolution. We could say and I would agree the ability to find god traces to evolution.

Why would you be able to find God. Why not aliens(people like us but from else where), why not super people, why not magical creatures(magic was well supported) .

 

[Willamena]

At that point I was referring to people in general, not just babies. The point is that belief (or lack of belief) is something you have, not something you do. It's misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of atheism as something people do that leads people to think (or demand) that babies can't be atheist.

"To have" is ownership, particularly, in this case, of a mind. Belief, like characteristics, is something that we have metaphorically. Its application to the baby is still debatable.

 

[Aquitaine]

Non-religious: they are generally taught to be religious, usually by the parents/society.

 

[LuisDantas]

These ideologies, values and language are similar world wide and through out time. The concept of God can be traced far back in human history and is spread throughout the world.

I think you are conflating things here. A tendency towards supernaturalistic views is certainly widespread. The concept of God is not. Not by a long shot, even though people go out of their way to claim that such unlike things as the various mythological entities that are at some point or another described as deities are somehow alike.

 

[bobhikes]

So you are saying the concept of God has not spread throughout the world or goes back through human history. That's fine. So lets say humans for 10,000 years did not believe in God, How did the concept get so prevalent. According to people in this thread it is only because parents force feed the concept on to there kids. If their kids were not force fed the concept we would all be atheist because we would never know God. Who force fed the first people the god concept.

God had to be found some way and in a way that most humans find God. Why couldn't evolution or God encourage us to look for God? Why are we constantly reaching beyond our environment what other animals do that. Could it be the search for God that is how we achieve so much more than any other animals?

Humans are very curious animals always seeking. It's quite interesting that God seems to be the top of everyone's list, even Atheist's. Very few people have a ho hum attitude with God.

We keep trying to build that tower in Babel. @LuisDantas