Atheism is the bastion of Reason...

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...so why is it so frequently pointed out here that it's the default/passive/unconscious position, held by babies and comatose patients alike? Am I atheist when asleep, but Catholic when I wake up? Would you consider a lifelong Christian, in the last stages of Alzheimer's and far past rationality of any kind, to have become atheist?

Is that claim, of atheism as an unthinking default mode, any sort of compliment to the thought you've presumably put into your position?

Positive atheism is the active belief that there is no god. Negative atheism is the lack of belief at all in this regard; someone could be in an irreligious culture or brought up in an environment where religious wasn't terribly important. A baby could be thought to be negatively atheist in this regard, but Christianity usually baptizes them as infants and begins socializing them into the religion as early as possible, Also, one can be atheist in relation to some gods and not others (atheist towards Apollo but not towards Yahweh, for example); still another dimension of atheism is confidence in the belief's truth: One can be absolutely convinced of the truth of theism at one extreme, an agnostic in the middle, and an absolute atheist at the other extreme.

In conditions where normal mental processes have temporarily or permanently eroded while the physical body remains mostly intact (the progressed stages of Alzheimer's, in your example), a more generall question of identity is raised. From the outside in, society would say the Alzheimer's patient retained their premorbid religious or nonreligious identity.

@NeantHumain

Positive and negative atheism are not universally recognized terms, even among atheists. As to your idea that someone is an atheist towards the gods they do not believe in; I tend to think that this idea is absurd. It is kind of like arguing that due to the fact I do not eat lamb (I just don't enjoy the texture) that I am a vegitarian in relation to lamb. I also dislike your tacit contention that bringing up a child within a religious belief system is child abuse, I find this concept quite totalitarian.

An atheist position can be come to as a result of a philosophical outlook favoring "pure reason" in all things, but it may be arrived at for emotional reasons as well - and frequently is.

[quote="91"]@NeantHumain

Positive and negative atheism are not universally recognized terms, even among atheists. As to your idea that someone is an atheist towards the gods they do not believe in; I tend to think that this idea is absurd. It is kind of like arguing that due to the fact I do not eat lamb (I just don't enjoy the texture) that I am a vegitarian in relation to lamb. I also dislike your tacit contention that bringing up a child within a religious belief system is child abuse, I find this concept quite totalitarian.[/quote

Whereas I find inculcating a child with unreasonable religious dogma before the child has acquired the ability to sensibly evaluate it is very totalitarian.

^^^^

I would not agree that it is necessarily totalitarian, there certainly are people who run their families like the worst dictators run states. However, the comparison of a choice within a family to the fundamental reshaping of the power between person and state the banning of teaching religion to children would require, is not delt with in your comparison.

I'm sure most people are still aware of their religion even when they're sleeping. As for babies or people with non-functioning brains, I think they're just non-religious. They're just not aware of any religions or deities, that's very different from people who can think and reason and choose to believe or not believe something.

because children have to be taught things. If a child isn't taught to believe in make-believe, imaginary creatures and beings, they won't.

As a catholic, you lack reason and thus, had to ask this question. Hopefully you will become enlightened enough to think for yourself, answer your own questions and stop talking to yourself at night. Questions are the beginning of wisdom. If you can answer your own questions, do so. Otherwise ask them.