To believe as well as not to believe are both "unnatural". To not know anything is the natural state (no mind/no thought). All knowledge is learned and therefore not "natural". Does a baby believe or disbelieve in a God? Just because it does not believe in a God....does not make it an atheist. An atheist is a person that came to the conclusion...there is no God. A baby has not asked the question...does God exist or not. A baby has no clue that there is a belief to agree to or reject.

To believe something....one agrees with something. To disbelieve one disagrees with something. But the Truth/God in my awareness, is beyond belief or disbelief.....

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May your awareness be perfection

To speculate beyond what we have experienced seems to be an innate and therefore "natural" experience. When folks take there speculations to the point of certainty, depending on one's inclinations, it becomes atheism or religion I suppose. Earl

I thought much like this for many years until I realized that there is more to religion than just faith. If you look beyond the faith and dogma, and look at religion from a cultural anthropological standpoint, you begin to understand that as soon as humans became sentient beings there has been some form of "the sacred." It is inescapable. As we have evolved both mentally, socially, technologically, etc, we are able to embrace the profane if we so choose. But don't negate human history because you're an atheist. I don't believe in God either, but I'm not myopic.

In your service,
Octavius

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"The Lord can make you tumble, the Lord can make you turn, the Lord can make you overflow...but the Lord can't make you burn." - Randy Newman

I would disregard it because his name is George, he lives on one of Saturn's moons, and if I don't believe in him, I'll be sent to the center of the sun to burn for all eternity. Not because he is the Supreme Creator. If I was to say that the Earth is flat, would you come to the conclusion that the Earth doesn't exist or that I have a misunderstanding about the shape of the Earth? If someone described God like you just did I would believe them to just have a misunderstanding about God.

So, it is expected that Man would disregard the existence of God? As far as I know the majority of people that have ever lived have been religious. I think that makes it pretty clear that it is more in our nature to be religious than not.

You may not have had sufficient evidence provided to you to prove the existence of god because of how high your standards are. I'm not saying that's a bad thing and I think it is good to be skeptical. I am. When someone makes the claim that materialism can answer everything and there is no god, I get very skeptical. When they make such a claim remember that the burden of proof lies on the person who asserts the claim, not the person refuting the claim. It would take a whole lot of proof to convince me that materialism can answer everything and there is no god because of how high my standards are. As you can see we are both in the same boat.

I'm not saying that it is unnatural to be an atheist. The way I would put it is that Man is a creature that asks questions and if he doesn't know the answers he speculates about what those answers could be. When people ask the big questions about existence they either believe in something divine or they don't. It's in our nature to be both.

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"I fully comprehended the power of the human mind at the exact moment I came to the realization that I'm totally insane and have no idea what I'm talking about."

This is a strange discussion because I don't recall seeing a definition of what it means for something to be natural to a species. Anything that a species does without learning it from another species must be natural.

Good point Statrei, but in my opinion I would change your difinition of natural to: Anything that a species IS without learning it from another species must be natural.

I see atheism as something someone "is"....or believes they are.

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May your awareness be perfection

ok...ya'll are confusing me...natural would also be to learn from another species...anything forced would seem unnatural..but what one does naturally would be uhh..natural....and one would and does learn from other species...naturally......species being anything other then human ...

Sendy, don't be confused....we are only sharing opinions. There is no right or wrong answer to this question : )

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May your awareness be perfection

gottcha...

I find it facisnating that no matter how much or little evidence is presented to a person, if it is contrary to what they currently believe, they reject the evidence as being invalid. They can cite religious or scientific principles to reject whatever they feel is not in line with their current beliefs. There is alwasy a simple excuse to throw away whatever evidence is presented.

So, does the evidence matter? Does it matter at all if the person it is presented is going to dismiss it out of hand? Or is it the concept of change that matters? Is it more important to cite alternative possibilites, which plant the seeds of change within a person? Seeds take time to germinate, and sometimes the ground is very infertile, and there is no water or Light. Yet without ever planting any seeds of change, new ideas can't possibly ever grow, can they?

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I am what I have always have been and will be, I just remember better at times. Thank you for helping me remember, I will return the favor!