Are we born as atheists, or are we born as believers?

GoldenBoy89 said:

I'm not sure if a newborn baby can really be said to hold any "beliefs".

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I disagree. I believe when a baby cries for food it is expressing its desire to be fed.

This is actually the definition of worship.

tooldtocare said:

To be one with others

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I've long considered Deteriorata to be less fanciful.

SteveB28 said:

In one breath you charge men as "masters of self deception". In the next, you claim to completely accept the unevidenced word of one of those men.

But I suppose you see no contradiction.

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I don't see Paul's words as "unevidenced."

Selah.

Extraneous said:

I disagree. I believe when a baby cries for food it is expressing its desire to be fed.

This is actually the definition of worship.

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I disagree. That is a natural instinct to not die of starvation. How are you defining worship?

aiki said:

I don't see Paul's words as "unevidenced."

Selah.

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Where is his evidence to support his claims?

GoldenBoy89 said:

I disagree. That is a natural instinct to not die of starvation. How are you defining worship?

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Thanks for asking. Worship, as defined by my personal understanding of scripture, is about looking to God for our daily needs just as children look to a father. Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread. He nourishes our soul with bread from heaven, and to me this bread represents Gods spirit which teaches and comforts us. The Apostle peter compares the "Word" which is the Spirit, to milk that nourishes a baby. So to me a crying baby is an analogy for worshiping God. God is the father and we are his children.

Q: Are we born as atheists, or are we born as believers?
A: It really doesn't matter.

farout said:

A person who is incapable of making the choice to reject Jesus Christ as Gods one and only Son, they are innocent and have no accountability. Until the age of accountability a persons name is in the Book of Life. When a person so makes their choice to reject Christ there mane is removed from the Book of Book of Life. This is pretty simple. Jesus said unless we come to Him as a little child we can not enter His Kingdom. It's not rocket science. But some can not believe that Gods love is so very simple.

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when you made your choice to reject all those other gods, your name was 'removed from their books of life'.

BTW .... the men who claimed to speak for god demand you go to jesus as a child because they know adults ask too many questions.

farout said:

most young children ask questions about the clouds, and the rain and rainbows, that's called a teachable moment. We teach and encourage the wanting to know where things come from. God.

the same is true in all things when training up our children, its grabbing those teachable times and using then for the child's betterment. With no understanding of who God is when growing up, you can only expect a child to believe there is no God.

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yes, that is a teachable moment. and as responsible parents it's upon us to give the correct answer, not the 'answer' according to our own personal superstition.

SteveB28 said:

In one breath you charge men as "masters of self deception". In the next, you claim to completely accept the unevidenced word of one of those men.

.

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quoted for emphasis. excellent point made!

SteveB28 said:

Where is his evidence to support his claims?

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Which claims?

I know from my personal experience that as a child I was neither theist nor atheist.
Until I was about 5 years old nobody talked to me about God in my family.
So, I didn't believe in God and I didn't deny God. I didn't know about God, I didn't know God.
Then I heard about God. My father told me that there was no God/gods. I have learned in school that there was no God/gods.
My great grandma told me that there was God. I laughed and teased her: "there is no God". I became an atheist when my father told me that there was no God. I believed my father and God didn't manifest Himself to me. So, I made an HONEST choice at that time.
It is very important to remember that to choose to be an atheist is an HONEST choice in most cases.
God LOVES when we make HONEST choices. It can be wrong choices but HONESTY it is what counts.

Alla27 said:

I know from my personal experience that as a child I was neither theist nor atheist.
Until I was about 5 years old nobody talked to me about God in my family.
So, I didn't believe in God

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That is what made you an atheist. You don't have to "deny God" to be an atheist.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Alla27 said:

So, I didn't believe in God

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Making you an atheist.

Eudaimonist said:

That is what made you an atheist. You don't have to "deny God" to be an atheist.


eudaimonia,

Mark

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I agree with you 100%.
So, yes, only THEISTS who KNOW that there is God can deny Him for some reasons. This sin is called "sin against the Holly Ghost".
Atheists do not deny God. They can not deny what they don't know.

P.S. I was neither an atheist nor a theist. I never heard about God until I was about 5 years old.
So, I couldn't make a choice: to believe or not to believe? I didn't have knowledge/information to make this choice.

aiki said:

Which claims?

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His claims that he 'met' Jesus, of course!

ChristJudgeOfAll said:

What's the default position?

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Atheism.

Alla27 said:

P.S. I was neither an atheist nor a theist. I never heard about God until I was about 5 years old.
So, I couldn't make a choice: to believe or not to believe? I didn't have knowledge/information to make this choice.

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Then you were without theism until age five, which made you an atheist.

Alla27 said:

Q: Are we born as atheists, or are we born as believers?
A: It really doesn't matter.

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From what I gather from others here, some might be uncomfortable acknowledging that they had a time in their lives as unbelievers, and more interesting, there are those that claim - according to their interpretation of the Bible - that everyone is a believer [in their version of the Christian God], so that any that might claim disbelief are simply lying.