Atheists don't exist

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Having said all that the article does used some very imprecise language to represent the arguments in an effort, it would seem, to foster misinterpretation.

MM

Making it a poor article, IMHO.

I (for one) am not dismissing the studies, I'm dismissing the presumption based on faulty reasoning (as above - stating that we are born 'believers' - This is demonstrably false and I chalk it up to imprecise langauge, as you say).

Another example: when the article says that people have spirituality. Well, fine. That has nothing to do with atheism, and as the article seems to focus on this one possiblity, it makes the header of the article moot.

IT also juxtaposes well researched, valid journal articles with suspect, arguably bogus claims. It cites Theos:

"Theos, a think tank, found that very few people—only 13 per cent of adults—agreed with the statement “humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element”. For the vast majority of us, unseen realities are very present."

What it doesn't tell you is that Theos is a christian religious/theological think tank that promotes articles based on their proclivity to support religion in the public sphere in the UK (I've written about many of them in my PhD thesis so I know a couple of them and the authors). Indeed it doesn't even cite the research the author refers to in the article. I had to try and dig it up:

http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/201...al-instead
http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/publicat...us-britain

Again, this would be a blow to critical thinking, not 'atheism'.