Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance

[wiploc]

There is a belief circulating in atheist circles and between atheist thinkers that atheism is a neutral, passive position and thus the "standard", it's how we are born. I'd like to question this for a number of reasons.



None of your reasons call this into doubt, except possibly whether atheism is "standard."  And the challenge to whether atheism is standard is simply a matter of how you define the word "standard."  If you want to think theism is standard because most people are theists, feel free.  

I prefer calling atheism the "default" position anyway.  I don't know that I've ever heard an atheist call it standard.  So, the refutation of atheism as standard may be a straw-man argument.  


Is atheism neutral?


- Theists believe that gods do exist.
- Strong atheists believe that gods do not exist.
- Weak atheists (everybody else) don't believe either way.  

Theism isn't neutral.  Neither is strong atheism.  But weak atheism clearly is.  If you take the neutral position, you are an atheist.  


Is atheism passive?

I'm guessing that, by "passive," you mean that you don't have to do intellectual work to get there.  If so, then theism and strong atheism are active positions.  Weak atheism can be active too. 

Many people consider the god issue, and wind up staking their claim on weak atheism, saying not only that it is a reasonable position, but that it is the only reasonable position.  That sounds active enough to me.  

But there are other weak atheists who are infants, who've never heard of gods, or maybe who've heard the arguments and gone away confused or uninterested, people who remain in their original weak atheist position simply due to the fact that they have never made an active choice on this topic.  

That's passive, right? 

Anybody who is passive, who hasn't made a choice of what to believe, is an atheist.  


Is atheism how we were born?


Certainly. 

Nobody is born a strong atheist or a theist.  We are each one of us born a weak atheist.  


Is atheism the default position?

Yes.  We start out with no opinion either way, as weak atheists.  Before one switches from not having an opinion to having an opinion, one ought to have a reason.  

So, atheism (weak atheism) is the default position because it's where we start.  It is also the default position because it is where every moral person must be in the absence of a persuasive reason to leave the starting position.  If you don't know of any logic or evidence that militates against weak atheism, then weak atheism is where you must stay.  

Plantinga, for some reason, questions whether there can be epistemic duties.  But, if there were not epistemic duties, then anyone could believe anything.  One could innocently believe that slavery is good, that Donald Trump is god, that one should burn down all houses in order to reduce people's attachment to worldly things.  Any crazy thought could be taken as true, if there were not epistemic duty.  

Since there is epistemic duty, everyone should be a weak atheist until and unless they come up with a good reason to change their position.  

Not all atheists are in the default position, but anyone in the default position is a weak atheist.