Question for the Atheist

[_MrStakhanovite]

In Philosophy, a belief means your attitude towards a proposition. I’m pretty sure babies don’t even have the cognitive ability to understand what God is, much less form an a attitude towards it.

[_Buffalo]

In Philosophy, a belief means your attitude towards a proposition. I’m pretty sure babies don’t even have the cognitive ability to understand what God is, much less form an a attitude towards it.

What gods to babies believe in?

[_MrStakhanovite]

In Philosophy, a belief means your attitude towards a proposition. I’m pretty sure babies don’t even have the cognitive ability to understand what God is, much less form an a attitude towards it.

What gods to babies believe in?

wat

[_Buffalo]

What gods to babies believe in?

wat

Did I stutter?

[_MrStakhanovite]

Did I stutter?

I don't understand how your question makes any sense in relation to what I wrote. When someone says:

I’m pretty sure babies don’t even have the cognitive ability to understand what God is, much less form an a attitude towards it.

and your immediate response is:

What gods to babies believe in?

I'm not sure what to make of it.

[_Buffalo]

I don't understand how your question makes any sense in relation to what I wrote. When someone says:

I’m pretty sure babies don’t even have the cognitive ability to understand what God is, much less form an a attitude towards it.

and your immediate response is:

What gods to babies believe in?

I'm not sure what to make of it.

If you'll think for a moment about what the word atheist means, I'm sure you'll conclude that babies qualify.

[_MrStakhanovite]

If you'll think for a moment about what the word atheist means, I'm sure you'll conclude that babies qualify.

Uh, no they don't. You don't even know if babies have beliefs, much less, what kinds.

Or are you going to tell me that since babies are not active theists ergo they are atheists, despite their inability to be one or the other?

[_Buffalo]

If you'll think for a moment about what the word atheist means, I'm sure you'll conclude that babies qualify.

Uh, no they don't. You don't even know if babies have beliefs, much less, what kinds.

Or are you going to tell me that since babies are not active theists ergo they are atheists, despite their inability to be one or the other?

The word "atheist" simply means without god - as in, no belief in gods. That describes every baby I've ever met.

[_Tarski]

Nothing much turns on the answer to the question of whether babies should be considered atheists or not.

[_maklelan]

An atheist disbelieves in just as many gods as a polytheist, save ____.

Some polytheists don't disbelieve in any gods. This isn't really a big deal, though. I'm just giving the quip a hard time.

Absolutely.

To begin, here is the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "atheist":

One who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God.

You would define an atheist not according to the traditional definition, but as anyone who does not actively believe in God, whether consciously or unconsciously. This is casting an awfully wide net for a word with a clear historical and contemporary usage that don't support your definition. Many theists and atheists alike prefer to label people without an active denial or disbelief in the existence of a god "non-theists." To insist that babies are atheists is basically to attempt to appropriate a demographic that can never self-identify with atheism and will always be distinct from self-identified atheists just for the purpose of rhetorically inferring that atheism is the natural order and that theism is unnatural. I don't find that kind of rhetoric particularly insightful or helpful.