Atheist
No religion
Whatever religion our parents are
Christian
Other (please specify)
Coffee Break
Are we born without a religion or are we born atheists?
What exactly is an "atheist"? If an atheist is one who doesn't believe in a supreme being, then all of us were born atheists. Is an atheist one who willfully rejects the concept of a supreme being? So are we born without a religion or are we born as atheists?
Coffee Break
We are born relativists, we are taught religion. But atheism is an acquired taste, partaken by those who have a reason to avoid God.
Posting Freak
We are all born with a desire for meaning, sense to the universe, and a desire to be loved. Most people... perhaps all, feel the need to worship Something. So, I voted "other."
Please could everyone pray for Mieke and Charles.
My testimony http://bibleforums.org/forum/showthr...ight=testimony
Coffee Break
Are you saying atheism is a willful rejection of God and/or the theory of creation as opposed to it being a passive failure to believe in God and/or the theory of creation?Originally Posted by BroRog
Coffee Break
Yes, atheism is a willful rejection of God.
Formerly moonglow
We are born knowing nothing at all actually. Babies act on instinct to survive and crave love and attention of course. A baby has to literally be taught everything...
atheism is based on the rejection of some belief systems. A baby knows nothing about belief systems at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without gods", which was applied with a negative connotation to those thought to reject the gods worshipped by the larger society. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves as "atheist" appeared in the 18th century.
a·the·ism
/ˈeɪθiˌɪzəm/ Show Spelled[ey-thee-iz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1.
the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2.
disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
A baby is still learning who mom and dad are and are incapable of having advanced thoughts like this. You have to know something to decide to believe it or not believe it in the first place. A baby only knows it feels good when his mom or dad holds him and his stomach feels bad when he is hungry..so he cries. That is pretty much it for awhile too..
"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated?" - D A Carson
2 Chronicles 7:15-16
Atheism means - No God. Thus the taking of two Greek words,"A" meaning, 'No' and "theos" meaning, 'God'.
Despite a willfull rejection of God, this will never mean that there is No God. All it means, is that a true Atheist will seek lack of knowledge of God and willfully ignore any evidence of God. Most Atheists speak more about God then Christians do, which never made sense to me. If there is no God, then why spend all that energy trying to "prove" there is no God?
Slug1--out
~Do not quench the Spirit ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:19~
~"So what hardship are you willing to endure, to see My will accomplished through you?"~
~Your relationship isn't knowing "ABOUT" GOD! Relationship is to "KNOW" GOD,
so that in the end and you stand before Him for the first time in heaven… HE KNOWS YOU~
~Do we, as Christians witness Jesus to the lost because we love Jesus? Or do we witness Jesus to the lost because we love them as Jesus loves them?~
~A prompting from God means that you are to DO. Thinking, causes you to... NOT DO!~
~Being on the tall mountain is where "you" go, to meet with God. Being in the deep valley is where "God" goes, to meet with you!~
Coffee Break
What if one is not aware of what God is? Can they still willfully reject something for which they aren't even aware of what it is?
Coffee Break
Is atheism a willful rejection of God? If so, then what if a person isn't even aware of what God is? Can that person willfully reject God if they don't even know what God is?We are born knowing nothing at all actually. Babies act on instinct to survive and crave love and attention of course. A baby has to literally be taught everything...
atheism is based on the rejection of some belief systems. A baby knows nothing about belief systems at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
Atheism, in a broad sense, is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without gods", which was applied with a negative connotation to those thought to reject the gods worshipped by the larger society. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves as "atheist" appeared in the 18th century.
a·the·ism
/ˈeɪθiˌɪzəm/ Show Spelled[ey-thee-iz-uhm] Show IPA
–noun
1.
the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2.
disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
A baby is still learning who mom and dad are and are incapable of having advanced thoughts like this. You have to know something to decide to believe it or not believe it in the first place. A baby only knows it feels good when his mom or dad holds him and his stomach feels bad when he is hungry..so he cries. That is pretty much it for awhile too..
Coffee Break
Why would an atheist ignore evidence of God? If you provide me evidence of something for which I believe to not exist, I will then believe it exists - simply because you provided evidence. I imagine the same applies to any atheist.
Senior Member
You haven't made it clear as to what you consider an "atheist".
Does an atheist say with certainty, "there is no God"? Or does an atheist believe there is no God, but can't really say with certainty?
Certainty- noun. perfect knowledge that has total security from error; fact
Coffee Break
I could be wrong, but I think an atheist is one who believes that there isn't any such thing as omniscience or omnipotence. This would mean there is no higher power which knows our deepest innermost thoughts. This would mean that anything that Christians attribute to God are actually coincidences.
That all depends on the definition of "God". Some atheists I know say there is no God, but they won't go on to define what God is - meaning it is somewhat nebulous what they don't believe in.Does an atheist say with certainty, "there is no God"? Or does an atheist believe there is no God, but can't really say with certainty?
Neither atheists or theists can know with certainty that their belief is of facts or the truth. I can only go by what I have observed and by the fact that the way Christians answer my questions suggests that most of them really have doubts as to whether or not a God really exists.Certainty- noun. perfect knowledge that has total security from error; fact
Coffee Break
God's existance can be known from what he has made. An atheist suppresses what he or she already knows to be true. You seem to be suppressing a truth of your own. If the rules of Christian decorum would allow it, I would tell you what it is. But alas, I can not.
Senior Member
Thank you. Now I will answer your question.
I do not believe in true atheism so I will have to use your definition of it to answer your question.
If this were a test in school and I HAD to pick to an answer, then by your definition of "atheist" I can successfully eliminate answer "B" (willfully rejects concept). That would make answer "A"(doesnt believe in a supreme being) correct by default.
To actually believe that answer "A" is true, I would have to base the answer on opinion and speculation. I have seen no study involving a group of a hundred babies growing up in a secluded environment (jungle, deserted island, ect.) without any outside influence. Then observing them for years to see if they come to the belief of a supreme being or not. (Although, history would be in the theists' favor because we overwhelmingly have more examples from every ancient civilization... i.e. Myans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Syrians, Chinese, American Indian, ect.)
When the children became old enough to think for themselves, the default belief would not be "there is no higher power, no supreme being". He may be unaware or agnostic of a supreme being, but definitely not atheist.
The atheist belief has to be judged.
Coffee Break
By your logic, if one believes in God, but suppresses it, then they are an atheist. Am I correct? And does that viewpoint hold true for most Christians?
If you think I'm suppressing a truth, please tell me what you think it is. You're encouraged to PM me if you don't want to post it in here. Remember, if God is real, whether you post it in a public forum or merely think it in your mind, he still knows what truth you think I'm suppressing. Do you think he wants you to share that with me?
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