Are Children Born Theist?
Edited 5-30-2016 and 4-12-2021
Buon giorno. In late 2010 and early 2011, I attracted the attention of a furious misotheist tinhorn who used one of the mantras that people of is type will copy and paste from other non-thinking atheist propaganda sites. Specifically, the claim that "children are born atheist, and learn theism later on". I called him on it; this is an unprovable assertion. Instead of offering evidence to support his fallacious assertion, he followed the Atheist Handbook™ and resorted to ridicule.
It appears that not only is the claim that "children are born atheist" a fallacy of assertion and completely unsupportable, the opposite may be true! Yep, children may be born theist.
Buon giorno. In late 2010 and early 2011, I attracted the attention of a furious misotheist tinhorn who used one of the mantras that people of is type will copy and paste from other non-thinking atheist propaganda sites. Specifically, the claim that "children are born atheist, and learn theism later on". I called him on it; this is an unprovable assertion. Instead of offering evidence to support his fallacious assertion, he followed the Atheist Handbook™ and resorted to ridicule.
It appears that not only is the claim that "children are born atheist" a fallacy of assertion and completely unsupportable, the opposite may be true! Yep, children may be born theist.
Is atheism or theism more natural for human beings?
According to online author Tim Covell, “Everyone is born atheist. Religion is learned.” Over at the “rational response squad” you’re treated to the claim that “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 [sic] a Theist.” David McAfee makes the same claim: “Now, the way I see it, everybody is born an atheist and, without submersion into religion as a child, we would most likely maintain that position…” These are just examples. There are plenty more out there in the non-peer-reviewed pool of “intellectual diversity” that is the internet.
. . . To simply talk about what babies actually know is one thing – and something pretty uninteresting at that. What is more interesting is to talk about the kind of beliefs that babies – unaided by religious education – naturally form as their minds develop. It is here that comments like those above are quickly culled from the pool of those that can now make it to the level of scientific respectability. They are wrong – children are not natural atheists after all.
You can continue to be enlightened by reading the rest of "Born Atheists? Science and Natural belief in God". Note two things: I don't endorse the entire site or entire article, and that the main point is that the "born atheist" claim is shown to be false.
