Do you believe in God? Why/Why not?

[Peh]

JWeinCom said:

Peh said:

Don't make it more complicated as it is.

 

Does a baby believe in a god? Yes or no?

I'm making it exactly as complicated as it needs to be.  A good definition has to be specific. And I'm sorry, but these matters are kind of complicated.  Sociologists actually put quite a bit of thought and effort into making good definitions. You're ignoring something I put quite a bit of thought into explaining to try and oversimplify it.

But to answer, no.  A baby does not believe in a god.  By your definition, that would apparently make it an atheist.  I disagree with your definition.

Since I answered a question, answer mine.

You and I want to write an academic paper about what life is like for atheists in America.  Do we talk about the 20 million or so babies in America in our paper?  Do we talk about the 71 million pigs?

But that's not my definition. I didn't make it. It's the definition for atheists /atheism. 

Your academic paper is a complete different issue. Here is the thing. Atheists is usually applied to humans with a more complex thought process and awareness of its environment. Animals, plants and human babies don't belong in them, because they don't understand the question nor the concept. So, you won't get an answer out of them, ever. And thus, actually no one really cares.

But as the definition of atheism /atheist currently is, it can be also applied to them. Simply, because they all lack the believe in any god. That's it. They fit the definition.

If you really want to write an academic paper then of course you start with the history of the word, the change of meaning / definitions, genetic fallacies, requirements and so on. And if I logically follow it, you will reach the moment where you test the definition on babies and pigs. But if the conclusion is: " Babies and pigs don't actively believe in any god. This also applies to a lot of adults. But one are called atheists and the others nothing while both apply to the same definition", then this results in special pleading. 

A baby can't be a monotheists as much as they can't be a president (Despite Trump proves it otherwise). But they can be (not a theist) and (not a president.) Whereas for this first we got the word atheist which equals to (not a theist).

Also, the atheistic default position is a counter argument to apologist who claim that babies are theists.