To atheists: did you always lack faith in God?

Did you always lack faith in God? Or did you lose faith that you had?

In other words, were you born an atheist or did you become one after thinking about it?

 

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Everyone is born an atheist, Sam. You were born an atheist. You still are an atheist, you just believe in one more god than me.

 

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Dawkins would be horrified to hear that. According to him, branding a child as an atheist is child abuse.

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/04/30/dawkins

 

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I had faith in everything I was told, especially in magical things, ESP, telepathy, Gods, spirits, etc... But I lost it after I realized that those things were just made up. I didn't learn about Santa Claus because I'm Jewish, but some of my friends believed it. That made me wonder about what else were lies too.

 

in general it is an arrogant assumption to assume that your religion is right because that means that everyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong

to me they all seem equily implausible so i chose to believe none of them but observe all of them critically and without bias

 

Gosh Sam, the brilliance of your insight is mind boggling. Were you born a Muslim, Sam?

 

Just trying to prevent child abuse, I know how self righteous you are on the subject

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You must be so proud of yourself. Congratulations. :bravo:

Too bad the same wouldn't apply with your own children, if you had any, that is.

 

but forcing children to have religion drilled into their head is equily cruel

 

All children are born atheists. You probably don't believe much of anything when you're born. You just observe I assume. I used to have a very strong faith. I went to Christian schools from 1st to 7th grade and I was with Mennonites for 6-7th grade and they had me brainwashed pretty good. In 8th grade I still had faith, but I wasn't as crazy since I was no longer around the Mennonite brethren (they're all related). My freshman year my latin teacher slapped us all with an astounding reality that I had never even thought of before. Then the rest of that year and my sophomore year I wrestled with what I had been taught my whole life and my new found logic. I wanted to believe in God so badly I even went to church, which I never did before. But try as I might the more I thought about God the more his story started to match that of Santa Claus. I wanted to believe but the seed of doubt had grown and I just couldn't. It wasn't even a choice I had conscientiously made. But I'm a skeptic and I think all legends come from something based in fact, so I remain agnostic on both the issues of the existence of God and the existence of Santa Claus.

 

What about language, education, vaccines, cuisine, dress, morality, discipline? Should you force all these on your children? What if they want to wear make up like Hannah Montana and high heels and a bra at nine? Should you impose your beliefs on them?

 

social acceptance is one thing but beliefs is completely different. they should be taught what is known as right and wrong in society but they should determine the rest for themselves

 

But social acceptance depends on the society. And so does ideas of right and wrong. Don't parents perpetuate social ideas by brainwashing their kids into the culture, language, religion and ideologies of right and wrong?

 

If it meant one were to burn in hellfire for an eternity, their entire wardrobes would be filled with Hannah Montana clothing.

One dimension = Sam.

 

but kids should be left alone in religous teachings until they are at an age where they can think logicly about everything they are being taught

 

Do you believe the same about ideas of right and wrong, language and education?

 

but with right and wrong, the teaching are only necessary to get by in the society they live in. kids today question everything they are taught and language isnt an idea it is a means of comunication

 

Don't be silly, the kids are obviously brainwashed. Clearly, we are blocking independent thinking and genetically inbuilt morality by imposing parental notions of structured schooling and discipline on children. Clearly, we should wait till kids are old enough to choose for themselves. In fact, as language develops the cognitive process, parents are introducing bias by forcing their own language choices on their children.

 

I think children should be taught the religion of their parents, they just shouldn't be forced to keep it should they decide that it's not really what they believe. My mother was Catholic and she taught me quite a few catholic values and I also went to Christian school I don't think it made me worse for wear because of it. But when I started to reconsider my religious beliefs my parents didn't force me to continue.

 

but common knowledge and highly debated ideals are 2 different things.