No child is born believing anything, therefore no child is born a theist, therefore no child can be born an atheist either.

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”

~ Stephen Roberts

Rather like posting , "organic ," on vegetables , that don't have chemicals sprayed on them ?

We are labeled as atheists. The word atheist is negatively stigmatized.

Maybe we should start calling ourselves something which negatively stigmatizes religions. After all, turn about is fair play.

Let's call ourselves something along the lines of antioccultists.

Can genetic (adaptive) memory make a newborn more or less susceptible to being or becoming religious?

Atheism is a religion like bald is a hairstyle.

Imagine a world void of religious doctrine. Not many can. But those of us that can, know this to be true because religion was created to keep control over of the masses and out of fear of the unknown.

The idea that all humans are born atheists is one of those ideas that sounds perfectly reasonable, and so is assumed to be true. But when people make such assumptions without first inquiring into the science, they are doing what they criticize religious people for.

The first scientific point to be made here is (as I’m sure you very likely already know) is that when a trait is found in every society, in every location, and in every known time period in history, it most likely has its basis in evolved genetics. So the practice of religions, and belief in gods, fits this rule of thumb perfectly.

What’s less commonly known is that a lot of well-established, mainstream science points to the likelihood of parent-child bonding circuits in the brain that morph into religious impulse as the child grows into adulthood.

That we are born as tabula rasas has long since been debunked by science.
[en.m.wikipedia.org]

I agree with this statement 100%. I compare it to racism. We are all born without any knowledge of racism or religion, but are taught it by society.

I think it is more nuanced.

We are not all born atheist, we are all born with no preconceived existential philosophy. Indoctrination by a wide range of religious beliefs indeed occurs, but remember, religions categorize each other as outsiders, including atheists. Even then, I don't get the sense that all religions hold antipathy towards atheists - some are quite accepting, for example universalist unitarians or buddhists - OR other religious beliefs.

The thing that casts people of different beliefs or flavors of non-belief as the other is the severity of the dogma in any given religious or philosophical sect. Most organized religions grew simply as a means of controlling other people, and dogma, completely human-made, is the mechanism used to disseminate and harden that control, including demonization of the other, believers in other religious traditions and non-believers alike.

It's not necessarily a false statement, it's just so sweeping as to ignore the complexity of the dynamics and motivations of various religious sects.

IMHO, of course, worth every penny you paid for it.

I would have said Atheism is self defined by non believers because infadel, heretic etc are so derogative and gives power to the religions using them to describe us.

I think God was created out of fear of the unknown. We fear and don’t want to die, so we made a god that has a place for us to go after we die. Then we kept others in line by saying there were rules to getting there. If we erased all memory of god, we would invent him again for the same reasons. Don’t understand something? With god, you don’t have to!

interesting concept, I wonder if there has ever been an isolated group of people who never developed the idea of a God?

I agree 100%.
I say this all the time.

That is a very true statement. I consider all religious sects, cults no matter how society accepts them. I use to belong to the baptist cult and I wish I could find my baptism certificate for I can burn it. Religion hurts more people than it helps. For I thought about suicide a number of times in my 30s due to it. I'm glad to be an pan sexual atheist. One of the few regrets I have in life is not becoming an Atheist earlier in life.

On a logical or theoretical plane, atheist seems to be a term that is unnecessary and “forced.” We don't have a term for non-astrologist. Nor do we have terms for people who don't believe in ghosts or reincarnation.

However, back here in the real world, the distinction between believing or not believing in a god or gods seems more basic than the woo-woo magical thinking mentioned above. The terms theist and atheist go back at least to the ancient Greeks, and homo sapiens didn’t get very far along their development before they started imagining super-natural beings (who they hoped would take care of them).

I would not go so far as to suggest that the religious want to define non-believers, but rather that non-believers prefer to offer a distinction to differentiate themselves from the religious! I sure do not wish to be considered 'one of them'!!

This a very insightful conversation ,from many points,,Love everyones views,lot of thought and insight,,Thank you

As to all people being born atheists, I guess it's true, but it doesn't last, even if you're not indoctrinated. You might not know the word God at first, but I would assume even if you were the only person in the world and were never introduced into religion that you would eventually develop a wonder and curiosity about what was out there beyond your view to the stars and why you were here. The concept of God had to come about at some point in human history because it's obviously here for us to discuss. Someone had to come up with that concept before they were indoctrinated to the idea by someone else. So I think the idea is inevitable and people would have thought about it for themselves even without indoctrination.

The term atheist is just another label to communicate.

Funny though that, as a kid, you possibly believed there was a monster in your wardrobe or under your bed. In the years before Monsters Inc, was even a thing (unless you had a particularly evil older sibling) nobody told you it was there. The possibility crept into your head, and without the life experience and rationale to dismiss it as nonsense, you lay there in bed, petrified that there might just be something hiding, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Which, of course, it never did.

I honestly believe that if religion didn't exist, faith and superstition would still find ways to manifest. If it's in 'lady luck' or in the 12 steps 'higher power' (which you don't have to be expressly religious to find, as I understand it) a lot of humans lean towards the idea that there's more to life than action and consequence.

Of course organised religion exploits this human trait in order to gain control and profit. The only reason you're not still afraid of the monster in the wardrobe is that you realised it couldn't possibly exist. (Think there might be an intruder in the house, and you're back to being that panicked child again.) The trouble being that there's a whole propaganda system in place to keep people from drawing the same conclusion about God.

I automatically do an inward eye-roll at memes and vacuous platitudes.

I want proof that "the religious want to define non-believers." Just because some jackass made a meme doesn't make it true.

FACT: For centuries, Christians burned non-believers at the stake.

[articles.exchristian.net]

Indeed!

I like words to define stuff. In that i think because we have the word 'theist', we also have 'atheist'. As a whole, I don't disagree that we are born atheist, but we are born absent of all -isms. However, I have been friends with people born to various religions who seek something else and others who follow blindly without much exploring. Also, I have seen folks who are born to atheist parents and seek out religion or spiritual connection. I think I'm going to have to think a bit on this one. Thanks for sharing.

To me, I don't think religious people or religion in general coined the term "atheist". Most religions already had words for those outside of that sect or of a completely different religion. Heathen and infidel come to me first off.