Born Atheists?

DAY 221

CHALLENGE

“Babies don’t believe in God. They are born atheists. So atheism is the natural condition of mankind.“

This claim is based on a misunderstanding of what atheism is.

People can have a number of attitudes toward any proposition:

• They may never have considered the proposition.
• They may have considered it but neither affirm nor deny it.
• They may affirm the proposition.
• They may deny the proposition.More specific attitudes are also possible based on how strongly one affirms or denies a proposition (e.g., holding that it is certain, all but certain, very likely, likely, somewhat likely, equiprobable, somewhat unlikely, unlikely, and so on), but these four general attitudes are sufficient for our present purposes.

  If we relate them to the proposition “God exists,” the following positions emerge:

  1. Those who have never considered whether God exists (alogism) 2. Those who don’t know whether God exists (agnosticism)
  3. Those who affirm that God exists (theism)
  4. Those who deny that God exists (atheism)

  When these distinctions are made, it’s clear to which category babies belong. They have never considered whether God exists—a position we may call alogism (Greek, a, “not” and logizomai, “consider”). Indeed, they belong to the category of alogists by necessity, for they don’t have the conceptual apparatus needed to understand the proposition “God exists.” Even if someone explained the concept of God’s existence to them, they wouldn’t understand what was being said.

  Atheism involves the denial of God’s existence. Therefore, it is a category mistake to claim that babies are atheists. They aren’t even agnostics but “alogists.”

  The claim that atheism is mankind’s natural state is also under- mined by the fact that religion is a human universal (see Day 313). Historically, there have been no non-religious societies. Indeed, recent research indicates that, as children’s cognitive powers develop, they are predisposed toward religious faith.