Are humans born atheists?

5Char

[Fearless]

For the most part kids have fantastic imaginations...

'They' say when we are born we are at our peak intelligence as far as learning ability goes. Many people say we are born Atheists but I tend to believe that babies having no concept of god or religion or Atheism for that matter makes us completely neutral by default at birth... it then depends on what influences them growing up and how they react to it. You could say technically they are Atheists but I am not sure that I am completely comfortable labeling infants with anything to be honest.

I always think of the movie Nell when this is discussed... what happens if someone is brought up completely void of any of these influences... will they have a natural tendency to find god and religion all by themselves? I will run through the city naked if anyone could prove that true.

Once when my parents were driving down a dirt road in England the stones were spraying the underside of the car... I asked what the noise was.

Later that night I was so excited to tell my grandfather that when we were driving down the road earlier chickens were throwing stones at the car from the side of the road.

My parents said 'chippings' but I still have that mental image in my head to today.

[Loki]

The word atheist only exists because theism exists, it's a construction of society. Very young children aren't aware of this, so I'm inclined to agree with Fearless and go with neutral. They have no need for the distinction.

[nari]

A child is born with what could be called an empty slate, taking in whatever stimuli there are. So if it's born to theists, eventually the sense or perceived existence of a god will be noted and probably accepted, depending on the drill.
One has to suspect that a god may exist before stating 'Nah, no way'.

nari

[Dane]

Simple mental development and reasoning skills.

Say your child says the thunderstorms have gone to sleep. He would reason that since when he has a big day he sleeps, so therefore if the thunderstorms have a big day with all that thunder, they'll get tired and won't wake up for a while.

Cause and effect, really. Some people get it right, such as a dog learning that when a lead is brought out it's going for a walk. Some people get it wrong through, such as a bird looking over its shoulder, getting a pellet dispensed, then looking over its shoulder again trying to get the same result.


Though as to if we're born atheists, I would say we're born neither way. The concept will surface at some point, and depending on the age of the child, their reasoning skills may be developed enough to explain or explain away the concept.

[Seamus]

A child is born with what could be called an empty slate, taking in whatever stimuli there are

I don't think that's true. A great many thing are hard wired into our brains. Eg aspects of personality,compassion and a drive to find order and meaning.

Magical thinking arises from the drive to 'understand', to impose order, meaning and to provide the illusion of control over life..

IF religious feelings/beliefs can only be taught, how then did religion begin? How to disparate and isolated peoples form religions? EG the differences between say the beliefs of the American plains Indians and the Australian aborigines suggests their belief were formed independently .


Left to their own devices,children will inevitably engage in magical thinking and invent a religion.

Religion; man's attempt to communicate with the weather (graffito,London)

[Seamus]

I think he thinks thunderstorms are alive.

Just as did primitive man seems to have;that's perhaps why so many ancient gods are attributes of the weather.

YHWH may have begun as a mountain storm god God caled 'El'
(he).