Is atheism a belief?

[downbeatplumb]

I'm thinking about atheism as the default condition. This sounds to me as if we grow up in total ignorance of religious claims and then, after our reason is up and working (if it ever gets there) start to consider the problems. 

But aren't the majority of people in the world raised with religious ideas floating in the environment? Being raised in ignorance of religion or by atheist parents must be pretty rare, maybe until quite recently.

I think you only think that because you are raised in a religious country. As a brit religion is not a thing that is talked about. Some people believe and they mostly keep quiet about it, most do not.

So for a lot of little ones, religion will be the default, and getting out of it will require some rethinking. For them, that's where the big leap comes in.

This only holds for countries that are not only heavily indoctrinated but also forceful in prompting their religion. in the UK for example the C of E is very unobtrusive. Richard Dawkins said it inoculates you from religions.

 As always, it will be easier for some than for others. And I suspect some people ditch religion for bad reasons (the nuns were mean), and then rummage around for better reasons after.

I have never "ditched" religion because I have never for one second been religious. Your thing here seems to be that people reject religion after being religious, for many people that just is not the case.

I agree that if someone were already an atheist when he started thinking seriously about these things, it would require some persuasive input to believe in god. A good argument, or a mystical experience, or some kind of personal epiphany. 

And this is where the talk about evidence comes in. It would be harder to switch if one took it as totally given that only science-type evidence counts. But people have been persuaded by logical arguments of a metaphysical type. Or mystical experiences. The scholar I was writing about earlier, who went from total rationalist to her own brand of Neoplatonism, found that the explanations offered by Plotinus and Thomas Taylor, which were not scientific but very subtle ideas concerning consciousness and the structure of the universe, were the best fit she found to explain her own various experiences. 

Science is the only method that works to find truth. Being convinced by mystical experiences or arguments is I'm afraid worthless unless backed up by science.

Anyway, I'm not sure about atheism as a default setting, but I agree that changing from one view to another does require reasons, good or bad.

Not belief in something IS the default for you to believe in something there must be something that leads you to that belief but to NOT believe it you just need to not have had the experience that leads you to belief. Again I am a prime example of that. I have never believed and have never seen a reason to start so I am an atheist.