Are we Really Born Atheists?
We atheists have a number of things in our toolbelts, and one of those is memes.
Many of these memes are oversimplifications or just flat out wrong, so I thought I would create a series to address some of our worst memes and explain why they are so bad.
Something that shows a lack of epistemological understanding is the claim we are all born atheists.
An atheist is one who ascribes to atheism.
Atheism is polysemous, which means it has many definitions.
With the way language works there is no “wrong” definition, except for specific context (think of the use of theory in science vs the colloquial), but there are more logical or useful definitions than others. This podcast examines the most common ones used to see how the claim that “we are all born atheists” holds up to scrutiny.
Article Mentioned in the Podcast: Are we Born Atheist?
“We Are All Born Atheist!” – SciPhi Shortz: BAM! – The Video
- 00:00 – Intro
- 00:49 – Bad Atheism Memes PPT Starts
- 00:57 – Hello and Welcome
- 01:13 – We are all Born Atheists
- 01:55 – What is an Atheist?
- 02:25 – Definitions of Atheism
- 02:53 – The Proposition Gods Do Not Exist
- 03:15 – Not Believing in Gods
- 03:57 – Lacking Belief in Gods
- 04:51 – Not Being a Theist
- 05:29 – Utility
- 06:06 – Summary
- 06:35 – Closing Thoughts
Posts About Atheism
- Rockin’ Atheism Part 3: Atheism in Greek Antiquity
- Rockin’ Atheism Pt 2: Defining Atheism
- Etymology vs Use/Definition: Atheism
- The Problem With ‘Atheism is the Default Position’ Arguments
- The Null Hypothesis: How it Relates to Atheism and God – SciPhi Shortz
- “Atheism is a Conclusion, Not a Belief” – SciPhi Shortz: BAM!
- Agnostic Atheism
- Is The ‘lack of belief’ Definition of Atheism The Most Common One Used?
- New Atheism and New Atheists w/ Ozymandias Ramses II [Video]
- New Atheism and New Atheists w/ Ozymandias Ramses II [Podcast]
- “If atheism is true…”
- Atheists, Atheism, and Ambiguity
- In response to Ra’s ‘What is Atheism?’
- Pitfalls of ‘New Atheism’
- Has Atheism Become an Ideology?
- Theism, Atheism, Agnosticism
- Do we Atheists have a Burden of Proof?
- Are we Born Atheist?
- Ontology and the things we lack… (lacktheism or rocktheism?)
- Philosophy in The Atheist Community – SciPhi
- Do Non-Theists Live as Atheists?
- Atheism | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Atheism and Agnosticism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Defining Atheism and the Burden of Proof (Acedemia.edu)
- Normatively Atheist
- On the definition of atheism (By Philip Müller)
- Rockin’ Atheism Pt. 1: The Wrongness of Aron Ra
If you have any questions, want us to go into more detail about something, corrections, critique etc. feel free to leave us a message either under the article/video/podcast on the site, on YouTube, or feel free to DM us on one of our social media accounts.
Want to Watch us Live?
You can watch us live on:
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Answers-in-reason
- Twitch: http://twitch.tv/u/davidiantwitchyballs
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/answersinreason
SciPhi Show
The Published SciPhi Show can be found in the following YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtOUOfJi7vrNuuLRMzGlJAvY6yiJChPub
SciPhi Shortz!
We’ve just started a new project called SciPhi Shortz! Essentially 5-15 minute videos going over the basics of a topic in a way that might be more digestible to people that would like to watch the streams, but don’t have 2 hours, so they can dip in and out to the bits that interest them!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtOUOfJi7vrPDpxlWWC8iDv8y4jVZHWwM
SciPhi Highlights
Don’t have time for the longer streams? We’ve got you covered. We created a playlist of various clips and highlights from the stream. These are a combination of interesting segments, jokes and funny bits, questions from the audience and times when we stack it and think you deserve a laugh at our expense.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtOUOfJi7vrPP0x9DjFU2Jpr27m1TftKn
Fresh AiR Podcast
The Fresh AiR Podcast is still going strong and can be heard in a number of outlets.
For the full experience, we suggest the website: https://www.answers-in-reason.com/series/fresh-air/ as we provide a number of links to various resources discussed in the article, however, can be seen on a number of podcast outlets such as: iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play | Spotify | Podplayer – and we are not limited to these either, just search for Answers in Reason or Fresh AiR in your favourite podcast syndication.
Fresh AiR Videos!
Whilst the SciPhi show is quick live videos discussing relevant and current topics, with Season 3 we tried a few different things with Fresh AiR, inclusive of videos taking people through concepts.
These can be found both on the site, and in this YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtOUOfJi7vrMESjrmr2tZzHyGF_Jjutit
Patreon
At Answers in Reason we provide all our content to you for free, but we do have server costs and would love to be in a position to provide you content more regularly than we do.
As such we have started a Patreon page.
Each Tier has the benefits of the previous tier plus additional benefits
Tier 1 provides basic access to the community.
Here you will see any of our private blog posts, memes, and anything else we share just to our Patreon. You also get basic access to our discord server.
Tier 2 gives early access
Before we release our articles and podcasts to the public, you get access as soon as they are produced.
Tier 3 gives enhanced access
We will give you the podcast server address with the ability to listen in to the conversation live, and message us whilst on AiR.
You will receive access to the podcasts before they have been edited. The raw show, including any faux pas, and none of the after-show additions like the soundbytes.
You will also get enhanced access on the discord server, and be allowed to join us on the SciPhi streams. (Subject to availability, we don’t want to crash the server)
And lastly, we will send you an AiR T-shirt after 3 months of membership.
Tier 4 gives pro access
As a dedicated fan, we not only give you all the above (plus free delivery on the AiR T-Shirt World Wide) and additional exclusive content but also we have a circa 30 minute interview, finding out about your life and interests, and what you hope to gain from the community.
There will also be additional gifts from time to time, clothing, mugs, etc.
Tier 5 gives the Apex of Access
You get all the previous benefits PLUS you get to suggest and cohost a topic for Fresh AiR. (The topic does have to be running with the theme of Fresh AiR, e.g. a Philosophical/Scientific angle of sorts)
Tiers may be subject to review and change in future if required, but you will always be informed in advance.