I have heard several atheists tell me that everyone is born an atheist. Often giving the simplistic definition of atheism as “No belief in God”. However, this talking point doesn’t hold true at all.
Babies don’t subscribe to any identities when they are too young, they only do so once they gain comprehension ability of the living world. Depending upon the environment they have been bought up in — they start picking up the cultures, rules, language, food habits, nationality, and religious opinions they are exposed to.
Newborn babies have no idea about the concept of theism. I would be surprised if they even knew the ‘a’ of atheism. There is a difference between a lack of awareness of the existence of god and making a choice of not believing in god. For example, Babies wouldn’t know the shape of the planet earth due to a lack of exposure and knowledge [they are babies after all] but does it make them ‘Flat Earthers’? No right. Not knowing about them is one thing, rejecting them even after exposure to scientific knowledge is another. And no both are not the same.
Another reason why newborn babies cannot be atheists is the concept of supernaturalism. Everything we know from science shows that supernaturalism comes naturally to children.
People also have a bias for believing in the supernatural, says Barrett. In his work, he finds that children as young as age 3 naturally attribute supernatural abilities and immortality to “God,” even if they’ve never been taught about God, and they tell elaborate stories about their lives before they were born, what Barrett calls “pre-life.”
“What we’re showing is that our basic cognitive equipment biases us toward certain kinds of thinking and leads to thinking about a pre-life, an afterlife, gods, invisible beings that are doing things — themes common to most of the world’s religions,” says Barrett.[1]
Even when they are not exposed to any theistic beliefs, there are many instances where they remember and transmit stuffs which are in no way scientific. Unless people are trained to accept scientific reality, it's not possible to veer away from pseudo-science or anti-science thought processes. Since babies are yet to attain consciousness or be aware of their surroundings, it is disingenuous to tell that they are born atheists.
The final conclusion to this can be: It's best to consider someone ‘atheist’ as only those who are actually exposed to the concept of theism and have chosen to reject the theist doctrine altogether not someone who hasn’t even been exposed to it at all.
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