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It would be interesting if a group of people could grow up in an environment in which there was never a mention in a belief in God. Because every civilization has a religion in some form in it's history it makes me wonder if an isolated group like this would just invent another god. If they were given all of the advancements in human knowledge that we have today and only religion was excluded it's possible that they wouldn't reinvent a new religion but I think it's a possibility that they might.
It is far easier to let some divine power take credit for good and bad rather than take personal responsibility for your life.
I agree with this..and I am a believer
"The devil made me do it", if you get caught and are ashamed...
(not accepting responsibility for your own choices)
"Praise God, he answered MY prayers" If your pride wants the credit for someones goodness or great accomplishments
(boasting)
The question seems more complicated than it sounds because to me atheism seems like it's a response to a belief as opposed to being something in and of itself. So in that sense I don't think you could be born an atheist because your mind is like a blank slate at birth and a newborn baby couldn't possibly have a position on a subject they don't even know exists.
That's exactly it! Everyone's mind is in a blank state at birth. Atheism means no religion. The word atheism is a label society uses to describe. Try to conceive of this state at birth without labels. Blank state is a good description.
This may be difficult in our society because a strong belief in god is considered the norm, whereas atheism is a deviation from the norm.
Religion comes from the immediate environment, not from within.
It would be interesting if a group of people could grow up in an environment in which there was never a mention in a belief in God. Because every civilization has a religion in some form in it's history it makes me wonder if an isolated group like this would just invent another god. If they were given all of the advancements in human knowledge that we have today and only religion was excluded it's possible that they wouldn't reinvent a new religion but I think it's a possibility that they might.
Good question, good example probably will be citizens on the island of a New Guinea.
Take a group of young children, who were brought on some isolated island, knowing nothing about god. What would they believe? How would they comprehend anything around them? Without scientific explanations that we have, they would become believers into something else, i'm not speaking of any specific religion, just something they would develop on their own. Here is how new religion would come to life!
Good question, good example probably will be citizens on the island of a New Guinea.
Take a group of young children, who were brought on some isolated island, knowing nothing about god. What would they believe? How would they comprehend anything around them? Without scientific explanations that we have, they would become believers into something else, i'm not speaking of any specific religion, just something they would develop on their own. Here is how new religion would come to life!
Remember the chilling novel The Lord of the Flies? It posits just this sort of scenario.
Anyway, a few months ago my mom told me she read an article about scientists believing they might have located an "atheist" gene. Apparently, it's hypothesized that there might actually be a gene that some people have, that makes them less able to blindly believe. This gene makes us more analytical, and more skeptical. I myself never read the article, and I haven't done much research on it, but I suppose it is feasible...
Irecommend extreme scepticism towards such a claim. Unfortunately perhaps, genes tend to be much more complicated than blueprints. As far as I know (and I've taken a course at university about it last year), every single "discovery" of a "[personality trait] gene" is either a mistake that has since be corrected, a scientific fraud, or a big media misunderstanding. This includes the "gay gene", the "motherly gene", the "hygiene gene", and the "God gene". Things as complicated as character traits are much more likely to be the indirect result of thousands of apparently unrelated genes.
Good question, good example probably will be citizens on the island of a New Guinea.
Take a group of young children, who were brought on some isolated island, knowing nothing about god. What would they believe? How would they comprehend anything around them? Without scientific explanations that we have, they would become believers into something else, i'm not speaking of any specific religion, just something they would develop on their own. Here is how new religion would come to life!
I posted a thread a while back on this very topic. It was in regards to 3 separate isolated islands with one being religious, one being atheist, and one being given a choice of the two and how life would differ on each.
Remember the chilling novel The Lord of the Flies? It posits just this sort of scenario.
of course, Golding posits from a different perspective, his thing was "evil is inherent in the human soul, no matter what form of innocents it takes" , he was not a believer in the "inherent goodness" of human character. His book did pose an interesting theorum.
Tesaje, I gotta spread some around before I can rep you again; or, so says the message.
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