jetson: Thanks for splitting the topic up.
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I don't accept that either atheism or 'theism' (whichever variety) is the default position of a human being, as I said earlier. The reason is that this strikes me as a false dichotomy, a consideration of only two options where more exist.
Note that this also means that I don't accept that any variety of theism is the default. Azdgari asked earlier which variety of theism would be the correct one, and I think this is a point which can't be ignored. If 'theism' were the default, newborns would already have a theistic belief in place, one they could elaborate on when they learned how to communicate. That is never the case to my knowledge, since theistic beliefs are learned from others who already believe.
However, that being said, I also don't accept that atheism is the default. Atheism is defined as disbelief in the existence of deities, but disbelief by its very nature is active, a rejection of something (as compared to a simple lack of belief, which is passive). If children were naturally atheistic, I think it would be much harder to get them into a religion in the first place.
The fact that neither theism nor atheism can be the default state contradicts the idea that it has to be one or the other, regardless of what logic states. Note that logic also supports a false dichotomy - if only two options are presented, A and B, and A is not true, then logic suggests that B must be true. However, in this case, neither A nor B is true, thus there must be more than two options to choose from. One of those options is a simple lack of belief, as jetson mentioned, which is completely passive. I would almost call it ignorance of belief, in fact, and that clarifies the situation, because someone who is ignorant of something has no basis to judge it by.
Hm, if theism is the belief in deities, and atheism is the rejection of deities, what would ignorance of deities be called?
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