(August 7, 2015 at 11:33 pm)vixene Wrote: How can someone be a lifelong atheist? You're not born an atheist are you?
There are two common senses of the word "atheist" so that in one sense you are perfectly correct and in another you are not. The two senses can be specified in terms of weak atheism and strong atheism. They are discussed in detail at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_a...ve_atheism
Basically, one sense of the term "atheism" is the absence of a belief in a god. That is weak atheism. The other is the belief that there is no god. That is strong atheism. Notice, one is not having a particular belief. It is not itself a belief. You are born a weak atheist, as you are not born with beliefs regarding the existence of god. You are not, though, born a strong atheist, because you are not born with beliefs regarding the existence of god.
At this site, people typically (though not always) use the term "atheism" to mean weak atheism.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
