You say non-believers are just repeating what a family member has told them. The same is true for believers. They are born (indoctrinated) into believing. They don't have a choice.

It only requires one to observe reality, to question beliefs and to require evidence, facts and data to support claims to become an agnostic/atheist.

Unhappy because they take labels that you think that you've earned? The path towards individual belief is - individual. Yes as kids we recite the tropes that adults spoon feed us, but we also start question when stuff doesn't make sense. My "epiphany" was at 10 years old. I didn't know the peoper words, but I knew that I believed in Mr Tickle as much as I did in god.

Why would you have to research the lack of belief? Atheism is the default. Maybe they just weren't indoctrinated in the first place.

The major research to became an atheist is to think. There is no need to go to Greece or Italy to that. Thinking is enough.

Take your ego out of the equation and be appreciative that these children are NOT being brainwashed.

I guess you didn't get the memo..... There is a new generation of kids who's parents are atheists/Agnostics. What you are reporting is actually good news !!!!!!..... How come you couldn't see it???? Ahhh.. back to the memo, right?

I don't think it takes.years.of study to realize that evolution is real, or any of the other God disproving things. All the stuff you talk about sounds a bit wooy to me. I guess I don't understand why one would have to have extensive higher education to not believe in god.

I'm an athiest because that it what I was taught from birth. Evidence seems to back it up.

There are many different paths to agnosticism. I would suggest that your path is much more convoluted than most. Many people simply recognize that religion is a scam and a farce, and that the bible is a work of fiction. Parables designed long ago to teach uneducated people how to live in a civil society. You are a fool, however, if you think that because you worked harder at becoming an agnostic or atheist it means you are somehow better at it.

Maybe...

Is that better or worse than students saying they're Christians or Muslims without having researched the alternatives?
I think I prefer "atheist" as the default.

Now that I see some of your response I get where you are coming from, you want them to defend their position, but they shouldn't have to, believers should have to defend why they think fiction is real, same as I should not have to tell you why I don't believe movies are real life or comic books or anything you want. Do I have to defend why I don't think the incredible Hulk is a real person? You shouldn't be asking the kids to cite to you why real things are real and made up things aren't thats really defeatist. If you wanted to teach debate class maybe but your frustration should be with people spreading the fakery with nothing behind it, not with challenging kids that don't buy in, they seem to get it already.

My older brother, in kindergarten or so, could not make sense of Santa Claus and raised such a stink about it that my parents had to tell him that it was all lies. I didn't grow up with Santa or God. Friends told me about God when I was in 3rd grade and it made no sense to me. Some kids can reason things out and don't just parrot what people tell them.

I disagree. I've never done any research on atheism or agnosticism nor traveled to the middle east. I don't think that's a prerequisite. As a child I decided that for me the concept of an anthropomorphic deity didn't make sense given the evidence. I decided there was no reason to believe. Do you expect that your students who claim a religious belief to have done research?
To me, belief is a little bit like being in love. Both involve belief (or faith) without corroboration. You don't need to do any research to claim to be in love -- although a large body or psychological research does exist on the topic. No one can make you be in love or have faith. On this site I have been surprised by the number of people who have 'done the research'. For me, being a nonbeliever is just part of my world view. No one can tell me I'm wrong (or right). I don't need to spend time reading others' views. I have my own research and writing to occupy my time.

Sorry, can't. If your students bug you, being around infants and toddlers must really be annoying. They 'became' atheist even more easily.

No I cannot relate. Do you hate it when they say that they don't believe in santa, the tooth fairy or easter bunny? Just because you took years of research to come to the same conclusion as them does not make you smarter. If anything it makes you dumber for wasting good drinking time. Bertrand Russel took 200 pages to explain why 1+1 does actually = 2 but I don't need to read it to know it.

nope, i cannot relate at all. it is logical to disbelieve in gods. why does atheism have to be researched and proven? the claim that gods exist is what needs to be proven, not the absence thereof. it took you a long time; no shame in that. however, if it came more easily to someone young, how is it offensive -- unless you're jealous that they didn't have to go through what you went through? i've been an atheist since i was 15. i didn't do any research. i just realized there were no gods. should i have kept believing because i hadn't read enough religious texts? and which ones should i have read? i wasn't christian before i was an atheist, so would it have been necessary to read christian texts? my family was secular-jewish but i had no idea whether or not my parents believed in any gods until i was an adult and asked. it turns out mom wasn't sure but thought she did believe, and dad wasn't sure but thought he didn't. they'd never mentioned it to me one way or the other, so i wasn't brainwashed and i wasn't following my parents' beliefs (as i didn't actually know them). how do you know your students' upbringings? how do you know what they have or have not read? how do you know they're repeating what family members told them? have you that little respect for your students? maybe you should view them as human beings with minds of their own.

g

It sounds like you had a long road to reach Athiesm. Some people realize that there is no God naturally and early. My daughter stopped beleiving in a god shortly after she stopped beleiving in Santa clause. It also sounds like you are judging them and questioning their allegiance to Athiesm. Isn't that what Christians do?

Kids are going to be kids. Some repeat the tripe they hear from their parents, some are more woke than others. Just let them be. It’s ok it bothers you, but don’t let it influence you. Just be an example. Some of them will probably change their mind a dozen times before they’re 21.

BUT... what a beautiful world it’d be if they were taught about science and the natural world instead of religious dogma and they all actually came to school already “atheists.” And I say that in quotes because it’d be amazing if there wasn’t a need for the word.

I grew up in a atheist family. It does not mean that I was not exposed to religion all my life. It does not mean that I did not read or learn about it. Were you born into a atheist family? If you were not, then you are talking from no experience and being judgmental without personal knowledge.

I think you picked the wrong job.

Why does this bug you? Maybe they are from atheist families (just like my kids and grandkids) and the religious ideas don't influence them.

Everyone’s journey is different, I knew by about 16. Some people’s bullshit meters are stronger than others

As a staunch advocate for keeping religion out of our schools. How in the world did this conversation ever even come up?
I, myself was brought up in a not very religious household but attended church regularly until I was 13. I started drifting away at the age of 8 though. I have attended churches of many different faiths as a child over the years with friends.
I have two sons 12 who identifies as an atheist and a 15 year old who identifies as agnostic and goes to church occasionally with his friends. Occasionally my ex forces them to go.
It’s their path, not mine. They see religion for what it is all on their own and reading historical fairy tales is not required.

There are many paths to becoming an atheist... Perhaps someone else's work convinced them...

I disagree, my son (now 25) came to atheism at a very young age, simply because he thought the ideas of religion were stupid.
I simply did not indoctrinate him, and given that mental freedom when he encountered religion he dismissed it in the same way I dismissed fairies and goblins.
When he sees me on here he finds it laughable that I spend so much time and effort NOT believing something and defending that disbelief, when he quiet rightly says the whole idea of god is idiotic.
I have explained how my generation unlike his, was indoctrinated from birth but how he exists in a world were the majority were not, and those who were are simply ignored or are subject to the same ridicule we gave to anyone over the age of 5 who still believed in santa (don't get him on santa, he believes teaching kids that is tantamount to child abuse)
It gives me hope for a better world ahead.