Atheists, what makes you think you are not privy to socialization and conditioning?

Question

Some atheist say they were born an atheist. No, you were born naked. How can you deny something that you have no concept of or never heard of? Also every human is conditioned by parenting; sometimes there is a positive influence and sometimes negative. Your atheism is just as much a result of your upbringing as a theists faith is to theirs

Answer 1

You seem to overlook the fact that the vast majority of atheists were brought up in theist households.

ETA:  You also need to figure out what "privy to" actually means.

Answer 2

Because the day you are born you don't believe there is a god.  It has to be taught.  Atheism is only disbelieving....look it up.

But most of us were raised Christian, including myself.

Answer 3

The reason why we keep repeating ourselves is because you continually refuse to listen.  If it's all about parental conditioning, I'd still be Christian.  What's interesting is that--despite both of us being raised in a religious family--my sister is agnostic, and I am an Atheist.

Most of the Atheists I've known came from religious upbringings.

There's much more to life than what your pastor tells you.  Seriously.

Answer 4

atheism isn't actively denying divinity, its just not believing in it.

You don't believe it when you are born, so you are atheist by default.

I do get your point about conditioning, though. But for me I didn't have a religious upbringing so never had any reason to believe in anything. A lack of conditioning if you like.

Answer 5

I was born into a Christian family sent to Christian school and attended church every Sunday until I realised I didn't believe in it. So no, it isn't a result of my upbringing.

Answer 6

I have to disagree with you, from personal experience. Most of the atheists I know were born into a religious family (usually Christianity), and abandoned their beliefs later in life. So, if anything, we were able to break free from religious conditioning to find our new viewpoint.

Answer 7

I've never claimed that I was an atheist from birth. I've said that i was raised catholic and it p*ssed me off so I dumped all that baggage.

Anyway - a particular religion is all they are saying you are born into. Like why are there more hindus in india than in japan?

Answer 8

I was raised Catholic, so it had nothing to do with my upbringing. Then when I was in my teens, I read the entire bible. That is what started my path to being a nonbeliever. Then I read it 2 more times and the more I read it, the less I believed. But I was lucky enough to have wonderful parents who loved me unconditionally and had no problem when I did not want to attend church anymore.

Answer 9

I was raised atheist yes but my parents said I can learn about things. What got me interested in religion was my history project and about the reformation in tudor times. I would never be religious though but neither is anybody else I know, except 1 catholic, who doesn't even go to church or follow the religion anyway. Anyway the more I see on here about religions, the more I'm glad I wasn't brought up with a religion because I'm soon learning the problems they can cause.

Answer 10

Why do you deny all the other religions?

You ARE born atheist. You have no beliefs or values or anything. All you know is breathing. Then you LEARN everything else, from the good stuff (math, science, engineering, friend-making skills) to the bad (religion, hatred, religion, religion, religion).

You just admitted that we are conditioned to human parenting, so why wouldn't you believe us when we say the same thing back to you?

Answer 11

How do you explain that most atheists in the USA were raised Christian?

Or, do you plan to not even try to explain it?

People who were raised to think one way but through education and life experience they learn that way was the wrong way for them does not make them socialized.

Answer 12

Well, I agree with one thing you said: you cannot deny a concept to which you have no exposure  just as you cannot believe in it.  Sadly for you though, atheism is not a denial of god, but rather no belief in god.  Because, as you inadvertently pointed out, you can't believe in something until you've been exposed to the concept, newborns are atheists.  They don't know what god is and therefore cannot affirm belief in it.

Answer 13

We are not born believing in gods. Belief in deities is a DIRECT result of indoctrination and socialization.

Fail.

The only thing that is conditioning is the word atheism, a title to a default.