Atheism is not a belief!!

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Why are babies always used? They lack a belief in god, but they also lack empathy, intelligence, survival skills and emotional control. Babies are terrible role models. The only thing they get right is atheism and cute.

There is no evidence in this lack of belief to be fair...

Babies aren't born with a belief in a deity; they have no concept of things beyond their own instinct to survive.

Self awareness isn't evident in children until just under 2 years when they begin to recognise the 'self' in their own reflection in a mirror, and even at this age, they display no evidence that they 'believe' in anything beyond what they can see, touch, and taste (eg. Mommy and Daddy, touching the radiator when it's warm is painful, when I cry I get attention from people and so on and so on).

If we were born hardwired with a belief in a deity (which one? The possibilities for deities are infinite), then why did I never believe in one? If we presume a baby is born with a belief, then that means I would have had to 'lose' my belief in whatever god or gods I was born with a belief in, which never happened.

Anecdotal, perhaps, but has much more basis than the idea of belief inherent within children.

[The Reality Salesman01]

There is no evidence in this lack of belief to be fair...

Babies aren't born with a belief in a deity; they have no concept of things beyond their own instinct to survive.

Self awareness isn't evident in children until just under 2 years when they begin to recognise the 'self' in their own reflection in a mirror, and even at this age, they display no evidence that they 'believe' in anything beyond what they can see, touch, and taste (eg. Mommy and Daddy, touching the radiator when it's warm is painful, when I cry I get attention from people and so on and so on).

If we were born hardwired with a belief in a deity (which one? The possibilities for deities are infinite), then why did I never believe in one? If we presume a baby is born with a belief, then that means I would have had to 'lose' my belief in whatever god or gods I was born with a belief in, which never happened.

Anecdotal, perhaps, but has much more basis than the idea of belief inherent within children.

...and babies aren't dishwasher safe.

[Tonus]

...and babies aren't dishwasher safe.

That's because they aren't dishes. Dishes are what you eat off of. Babies are what you eat.

[Creed of Heresy]

Welcome, AP.

And I think y'all get what I was saying. Chad: To answer your question, it is true through reality. All the religious books claim infallibility, yet are utterly fallible, thus proving their basis is false via reality. Ockham's Razor, which is itself ridiculously infallible, negates the "need" to have a personal or self-created faith, since whatever is going on in reality, the addition of a god is unnecessary. "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là." If your faith is unique, fine, but last I checked if nobody is sharing your view then it must mean that god chose to reveal his plans and actions through you while ignoring tens of billions throughout history, who all got it wrong. Every religious person, every believer, finds their worst enemy for their ideology is not atheists but other theists of different faiths. Set two of you guys loose on each other in a debate and you guys will tear each other up harder and with more violence and rage than you'd ever be able to show an atheist. Hell, we still see it to this day. It's happening right now, in fact, as I type this. Kind of depressing, that.

Atheism is reality. It is the application of Ockham's Razor to understanding how the world works. The theories work great on their own with no need of god perched atop them to vindicate them.

As an aside, I think the biggest problem religious people have with science is just how coldly, casually, and simply it snipped the strands of godly "proof" without Armageddon occurring as a result. I think science dropped the floor out from underneath the religious way too suddenly, didn't give them time to come to terms with it. So now they all are scrabbling for whatever tidbits they can, they're actually having to REALLY work to spread their religion now, and they're all just pissy that this suddenly titanic amount of effort was heaped upon them with extremely basic explanations that make far more sense than anything they've claimed thus far. I admit if I was working a nice, cushy job holding the floor down, and then suddenly some new manager comes in and starts making me bust my ass for my paycheck? Even if he made the company into an economic force all on its own, and even if I was benefiting, I'd still be pissed off my lazy-ass coast-on-nothing job was gone and I was having to really work for the paycheck now. Same thing happened with the religious and science. The religious all benefit from what science has done yet they bitch about it because they gotta really work to make themselves relevant.

Kind of sad to watch, but since it isn't happening to me...it's funnier'n hell.