Atheism speak your mind about religion

I will admit that you make me feel as if I am walking on pins and needles not trying to offend you! I feel as though I could be as honest as I could possibly be and spend a enormous amount of time with you and not get very far because you do not seem to be willing to answer the questions that I asked.

I will not give you answers but I will give you questions in hopes that you would at least consider them!

I believe that a small correction is in order with that. You are correct that a new born cannot be indoctinated, but neither can they be an atheist for they would have to have knowledge of religion in order to be against it. They don't have any ideals what-so-ever because they have no knowledge of the world to either agree or disagree with. (emphasis added)

The technical problems of defining "atheism" may be divided into two categories: (1) etymological and (2) epistemological. (For the purpose of this discussion, I shall accept the common definition of "theism" as "belief in a god or gods.")

1. It is sometimes claimed that the chief etymological problem in defining "atheism" is how to construe the prefix "a." Should we regard it as a term of privation meaning "without," or should we regard it as a term of negation meaning "no"?

If we choose the privative meaning of "without," then "a-theism" will mean "without-theism" -- i.e., "without (or lacking) belief in a god or gods." This clearly supports the definition of atheism as the absence of theistic belief.

What if we construe the prefix "a" negatively to mean "no"? This has been preferred by those who wish to define atheism as the outright denial of God's existence. But consider: even the negative sense of "a" doesn't, by itself, give us this definition. "A-theism," with the negative "a," translates into "no-belief in a god or gods." Here again, we have an essentially privative definition -- atheism as the absence of theistic belief.

I suggest, therefore, that the real problem in defining "atheism" lies, not in the meaning of the prefix "a," but in determining precisely where that prefix should be inserted.

Atheism as outright denial can be achieved only if the negative "a" is used, not to qualify the entire meaning of "theism," but only part of it -- i.e., "a-theism" means "belief in no god or gods." In this interpretation, atheism is construed, not as the absence of a belief, but as a particular kind of belief. A bunch more stuff here...

I am not going to argue with you or anyone else about whether you are born anything. reasoning, I am not trying to be mean with this statement but you are being pretty transparent and you are doing what I call Atheism 101. There's like 101 things you can bring up to ask me that you think should disprove there is God. Don't worry, some Christians, well, lots of them really, have theirs too. There's the Trinity101, Oneness101, etc, etc. I get irritated with them as well. It seems more like an "I'm trying to trick you into thinking you really don't believe" kind of thing and I hate that. I hate it because I used to be guilty of doing it myself.

I am a believer and I don't see that changing. You will bring up questions that my only answer can be "because God said so in the bible" but that will not be good enough for you as it is not good enough for many others. But, it is more than enough for me.

You seem like a nice enough person and I really didn't mean to put you on pins and needles. I really don't like profanity. I talk to lots of non-believers on this site and most of them I really enjoy talking to. I apologize for putting you on pins and needles.