"You Wouldn't Be An Atheist If You Were Born in a Different Time and Place."

Bonus: Quote from Robert G. Ingersoll below!!

If I had the time I would start a whole series of quotes with my responses to see how you would respond. Here's a Tweet by @EscapingAtheism · Apr 23:

Almost all atheists today wouldn't be atheists if they were born someplace else, in say, pre-Columbian America, or seventh century Africa.

My Tweet in response: 

This is true if we were indoctrinated in a religious culture without knowing any alternatives, and without being taught to think according to logic and reason based on objective evidence. Got it! Religious indoctrination that stifles doubt and eschews evidence is the problem.

A follow-up Tweet:

The sociological fact that we believe whatever religion we were raised to believe leads us to the null hypothesis of doubt. The burden is upon us all to follow the objective evidence wherever it leads if we wish to be honest seekers of truth. Most people are oblivious to this need.

Comment: People don't see their own culture. They see with it. It's what people use to see anything at all. Culture is to be likened to our very eyes. We don't see our eyes. We see with them. It's also likened to fish who are unable to see the water they swim in. David Eller makes this point. So we should question everything we see. We should also seek objective evidence for what we conclude, not unlike how prosecutors won't prosecute on hunches, or circumstantial evidence, or hearsay testimony, until solid evidence exists! 

Further comment on why you shouldn't trust your beliefs, but should test them:

Here are the facts. Your brain will deceive you if left unchecked. You must force it to heel against its preferences. Your brain needs help to get at the truth. It needs better inputs, the objective inputs of science. For the brain is a belief engine. We first believe, usually what we prefer to be true, or what’s familiar, then we seek to confirm our beliefs, not to disconfirm them. We grope around for evidence to support our beliefs, sometimes despite solid evidence to the contrary. Once the brain latches onto an idea it can be extremely difficult to dislodge that idea from its grasp. The more important the idea is to the brain then the less likely it can be dislodged. If left to itself your brain will try to fit all facts into a grid of self-preservation, a procrustean bed of its own making.

The brain only cares if what it concludes helps it to survive. The brain evolved to act this way for self-preservation purposes. It maintains and defends its beliefs so you can survive as a social creature, since you need others to survive! You will defend the beliefs of your social group in order to stay within the safety net of your social group, irrespective of whether those beliefs are true or not. There is a massive amount or solid research supportive of these undeniable facts.

 Robert G. Ingersoll said:

     For the most part we inherit our opinions. We are the heirs of habits and mental customs. Our beliefs, like the fashion of our garments, depend on where we were born. We are molded and fashioned by our surroundings. Environment is a sculptor -- a painter.

     If we had been born in Constantinople, the most of us would have said: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." If our parents had lived on the banks of the Ganges, we would have been worshipers of Siva, longing for the heaven of Nirvana.

     As a rule, children love their parents, believe what they teach, and take great pride in saying that the religion of mother is good enough for them.

     Most people love peace. They do not like to differ with their neighbors. They like company. They are social. They enjoy traveling on the highway with the multitude. They hate to walk alone.

     The Scotch are Calvinists because their fathers were. The Irish are Catholics because their fathers were. The English are Episcopalians because their fathers were, and the Americans are divided in a hundred sects because their fathers were. This is the general rule, to which there are many exceptions. Children sometimes are superior to their parents, modify their ideas, change their customs, and arrive at different conclusions. But this is generally so gradual that the departure is scarcely noticed, and those who change usually insist that they are still following the fathers. SOURCE

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