No one is "converted" into being an Atheist. All people are born Atheist. It's just that parents like to enforce their religion upon their kids and we tend to adopt their beliefs and we do the same thing to our kids, amirite?

It's a vicious cycle.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes it is! Especially when their parents are intolerant of all other religions and they adopt that trait!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually we are born with an innate sense to believe in God if you would just take a look at the beauty in nature around you instead of being so cynical, but uh, to each their own.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You are a Christian because you were raised Christian. Beauty of nature? There are many "Natural" Disasters that kill so many people a year. All those innocent dead people. Yeah Real beautiful!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm saying there is no way this complex universe was created by chance, you can't tell me nature isn't beautiful. Besides, all matter moves towards an increasing state of disorder. Evolution claims that we get more orderly, how is that possible?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think that the reason you believe there's no way things were created naturally is because you haven't been exposed to the math or science that explains some of these things. And I think that the reason that you (and pretty much everyone else here) haven't been exposed to them is because they're so complicated and at such a high level that nobody here would understand it, therefore it's pointless to try to explain it. I'm not saying that the math/science is necessarily 100% truth (because there is a minute chance it might be incorrect), but it's very solid. It's kind of like an average toddler being "taught" Algebra. Except, normal human beings like ourselves are the toddlers, and Algebra is the math and science that attempts to explain these events.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

not at all true, you haven't been exposed to the Bible have you? Or maybe you have, but to this day there is nothing that can be proven wrong in the Bible. Science has not and will not prove it wrong. Look into creationism even a little and you can see neither side will win in accordance to physical evidence.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes but I can also prove through the bible itself that the god it speaks of seems to be quite the hypocrite and doesn't seem very modest

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'll hit on the second point first only because that's an interesting thought. I'm not sure God should be modest, if we are correct, he created the universe.. As for being a hypocrite, show me the verses that confirm this and I will gladly explain them.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@900982 (SlimShady): I think that science will eventually prove something. Technology and knowledge are constantly improving. I think one of three things will happen sometime in the future. (1) Science will disprove the Bible, (2) A flaw in math/science so great will be found that everything we know is false, or (3) humans will become extinct before either of those two happen. I'm not an expert on the Bible or creationism, but I know what they're talking about, generally. However, I think that there is math/science that is pretty solid too, and there are people that believe in it as much as you believe in the Bible. The argument can work both ways.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(NfskMjmMal); and your exactly right about that, I believe the Bible will never be proven to be correct (until the end days when it'll be obvious but people still won't believe because of what will be happening) because believing is supposed to be an act of faith. The only thing us Christians can do is prove the Bible holds up more so than science.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Umm.... no. That's your sense of "human superiority" talking.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

When viewing a river, the first thing that pops into my head isn't, "Wow, this is so beautiful that there is no possible way it could have been created naturally". If you had never been taught about a god, you wouldn't just know if one existed or not.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

what religion are YOUR parents though? or what do they teach at school? you learned atheism from somewhere. even secluded people have a story usually involving God (or gods) as to how they got here.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

AWWW! It's Kind of sad how you can't defend your own beliefs and you have to attack others. Well let me tell you, my parents never forced their religion upon me and I grew up Atheist without knowing what it is. Not all people are born Christian or Jewish. People who make poly-theistic religions are unaware of science and mark natural experiences as Gods. You don't learn Atheism from somewhere, epic argument fail. If you don't believe in a God then you are automatically an agnostic or atheist. Who created God if he created the Universe? Are evolution argument doesn't make sense either. Evolution claims that all LIVING beings are going towards an orderly state it can't be applied to all matter.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Not Christian!): a.) i'm not doing any attacking whatsoever. b.) you learned atheism from somewhere i'm sure. c.) all living things are matter.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes but not all matter are living things. No, I didn't learn Atheism from anywhere, I never grew up with a faith, you can't "learn" Atheism, it's the absence of belief. So as soon as I stopped believing I was considered an Atheist. Then I learned the term much later on in my life. If that is what your trying to point out.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Not Christian!): @893519 (Shelbyam118): maybe I'm arguing the wrong point, what I really want to say is even an atheist can look around and see God's work and learn to believe, so yes we essentially learn to believe in Something, I don't believe we are born atheist though...if you get what I'm saying at all?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

And thanks for the back up, dude.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Not Christian!): About your last point...say we were to cast aside any beliefs of God temporarily and turn to evolution. Where does the cycle begin? What was there before the universe was created, if not God? It's the same principle.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

And where did He come from? It works either way.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That's what I was pointing out.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Whoops! ;;

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Not Christian!): You most certainly can learn athiesm and that is the same way you can learn religion: by having it hammered into you.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yes, but let's say a baby is born and grows up and sees 'natural beauty', all without any idea of religion. They wouldn't say "God created that!" They might say "Where did this come from?" but they would have an absense in the belief of God because they wouldn't know who He is. Essentially, atheist is the default until taught to believe otherwise.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i'm not gonna argue about this anymore, but i agree with piratedicecream.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Not Christian!):If I may, If you don't believe in God, you aren't automatically atheist or agnostic. There's lots more things you can be. Pantheistic for example. Einstein was one. I mean, more likely than not, you're agnostic or atheist if you don't believe in God, I just wouldn't say definitely one or the other. Or you could be Buddhist....or a Pastafarianist. Unless you meant to say "if you don't believe in a god" (as opposed to God, the Christian God) but, pantheistic still applies. As does pastafarianism.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

My parents are Catholic. I just stopped buying into it. No one "taught" me Atheism. It just happened.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Me too. I was raised Christian and that's what I was for 17 years, then, on my own, I thought about it and realized that it's not my thing and that it's a bunch of nonsense that I'm not gonna fall for. I don't believe in fairytales

by Anonymous 13 years ago

exact same thing here. I actually lived in upper michigan, where like 90% of people are Apostolic-Lutheran. When I was in 3rd grade I thought there were two "religions": Christians, who believed in a God, and Jews, who didn't. I thought Judaism was Atheism, so I went around telling people I was Jewish. :b also, inb4 people saying i became atheist to rebel.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I live in Michigan, too. My family was Lutheran until my mom got remarried. Then they converted to Catholism while I became Atheist.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Lower Michigan? Either way it's a small world I guess. This is a weird question, but why do people convert from one sub-religion to another anyway? Like going from Methodist to Lutheran or whatever the names would be...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah, suburbs of Detroit. There are a lot of small differences between religions. For example, Catholism is a lot stricter than Lutheranism. Lutherans alo don't have confession. The main ideas are the same, but they all have different ways of going about explaining their points.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ahh I see. I never really knew the differences except that the Apostolic don't use birth control.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Before my parents began telling me about God, I always had questions like "is someone watching me?" "who created the world" and kind of always believed in a upper being :$ Maybe it's just me

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Hmmm...So if a baby who's born atheist becomes a christian, he can't be converted back to aethiesm? Why can't he be converted back?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's not saying that you can't convert, just that you can't be converted by someone else...I think.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

First I voted yes, but I actual agree with what the person above me said. To be theist you have to believe in a god, and to be atheist you have to believe that there is no god. But when you're first born you don't even know what "believing" is. By the time you understand what it is to believe your parents have probably already taught you their beliefs.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No. Atheism is not "Believing there is no god" It is a lack of belief in any god. No one knows if there is a god or not, one could exist, but unicorns could also exist.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Of course no one knows (despite what some very religious people may claim), that's why it's called believing. Except for with unicorns, I know they exist :)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

We are more born of no belief. As we grow, we adopt our own beliefs, or those we are told of. Look at the ancient cavemen, they clearly had some form of religion. Religion is how people could explain natural phenomena. It is a way of answering big questions simply. I'm not saying religion is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it is a natural part of humans and it has evolved right along with us.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm glad that I had the privilege of being taught who Jesus was. Though my parents are the reason for that they aren't the ones who gave me a relationship with him. That can only be done by ones self.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

fuck this, i'm gonna go get a sandwich

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This post makes no sense. A person can't be born not believing in God. A baby doesnt really even comprehend things around them at that age. I think you mean a person is born with no religion at all...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No, all people are born being agnostic.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

God explains the unexplainable, until someone else explains it. That's all religion is, an explanation for people who both can't explain something, and can't accept that they can't explain it. We're not born with an innate sense of anything except curiousity. We couldn't really give a shit whether or not the answer to our question is real or not. Some of us do care, though, those are the scientists. They dedicated their lives to finding the reasons why things are. The simpler people were content coming up with a fairy tale, and stuck with it. In the end, science will prevail, and religion will be useless. Find out why things are, and you can figure out how things can be. Make up a reason for why things are, and you get nowhere.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You have a very primitive understanding of faith.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Care to expand? As far as I'm concerned, my understanding of faith is all that I need. People make up things, people expand upon them. It's basically the Santa Clause tale we tell children, except people of all ages buy into it. There's a reason religion was invented before we were capable of finding anything out, and science was brought into existence when we had the tools to dissect the world around us. The thing is, old habits die hard, and religion is just an old habit.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well, faith is not just about explaining how the world works. In fact, that's probably the least important of it's functions. Most faith is meant to teach us what science cannot and never will be able to teach us. Namely, why things happen, how we ought to behave towards each other, and our place and role in the universe. You insinuate that the only reason religion still exists is because it's just an old habit, but in reality, it serves a very important role just as science does. The two are meant to be complementary, not contradictory.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know people have said this before, but babies are born non-religious. It's when they're old enough to choose religion they choose atheism. Non-religion is not believing in religions, while atheism is believing religions bullshit.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Babies are agnostic until they decided (or their parents) what they believe.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

well i dunno how to vote. i don't believe people are born one way or the other, and it is certainly possible to convert from theism to atheism. but then again, people do tend to be raised in their parents' religion.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree with Dumblewhore in saying that we're technically born apatheist.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I say it doesn't matter. This is the problem with the world. People get into fights over who is and isn't right. Honestly, who cares? If God is real, congrats to everyone who believes, you'll be in Heaven. If not, then who knows? All I'm saying is that people should stop arguing. Live your life to the fullest because we don't know what happens afterwards.

by Anonymous 13 years ago