Who is to blame for a person's atheism?

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There’s no such thing as “atheism”. There are atheists, but there is no single world view of these people because we don’t have world views on what we don’t believe about reality, only what we do believe about reality. As an atheist, the majority of my atheist friends are not atheist because of bad experiences, it’s because the reasons to believe were insufficient to convince them. It’s a tentative position. Bring better evidence and arguments and see where it goes.
Example: A jury member that is unconvinced and finds the defendant not guilty. Do they have a world view of “not-guilty-ism” now? No, no they do not. Did they conclude that because they had a bad experience with this topic that the defendant is accused of? Maybe, but that is not always the case. Most times, its just bad evidence and reasons presented by the prosecution. That is why when someone is unconvinced that the supernatural exists based on your bad reasons and bad evidence, they don’t have a world view based on that.
 
Of course I found out that a teacher can make a parent believe that her child is stupid and deserves to be demoted to third grade.

A boss can believe an employee did something wrong and it can be false.
Misjudgment and falsehoods abound. Starting a rumor can surely alter credibility.

I know of someone who was raised Catholic, but she said she doesn’t really think it’s all true.

Sometimes I think atheism rubs off on people. If they are always with people who don’t believe in anything, they follow suit.
 
The Bible has got somethings to say about atheism -
" Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word "
Children learn by repetition, and tend to retain what they have learned.
One of the Psalms says
" The fool has said in his heart - there is no God. "
To a modern ear this may seem to be unacceptble, but it is more a judgement on the atheist than it is a judgement on the existence of God.
 
We choose what we believe. It is difficult to grapple with free will and the intellect of reason, but, you have chosen to believe everything you believe.
 
Faith is a gift. I think that is mentioned in the Bible. I think we’re responsible for cultivating our faith. Some people by nature are more inherently doubtful or they grew to become that way. It’s like we’re debating nature or nurture. I’m certain if I grew up in a Muslim country and surrounded by Muslim relatives, it would be “natural” for me to identify and follow Islam.
What we are constantly exposed to shapes our beliefs
 
No matter how many times it’s said you choose what you believe it’s just not true. You do not just pick what you believe. Beliefs are shaped by upbringing, culture, evidence, etc. You can’t just flip a switch and believe something different. You couldn’t do it right now if you tried.
 
I thought if I grew up in a predominantly Muslim country in a Muslim household the odds of me choosing Christianity is low.
 
Yes the odds are greater you would be Muslim of course. There are converts yes, but most people follow the religion of their parents.
 
Maybe the Lord takes that into account. Why would I choose Christianity over the dominant religion of my culture?
 
Not a direct question. More of why expect someone to convert if most of what they’ve been exposed to is not Christianity. Should they go to hell for not choosing Christianity or not choosing to believe in God? Some people do convert, that’s the exception not the norm
 
That’s a great question. I’m not sure why people expect other people to convert when they them selves usually say they would never convert. Being taught a religion from birth is very difficult to shake.
 
Because they believe they’re right and their religion is the ultimate truth. I’m Catholic. Jehovah’s witnesses tell me they have the truth as do Protestant Christians. They want me to convert because their sect of Christianity is right and living in the truth. My Protestant friends would never go to a Catholic service.
 
People convert because someone, somewhere along the line (often many someones along many lines) have given witness to the truth. These disciples planted seeds, the person begins to think about it, the Holy Spirit shines some light on those seeds and the seeds take root and grow. The person has the free will at any time to bring out a weed whacker and chop down those seeds…
 
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wkj_123 said:
No your not understanding me. There probably are people who believe those things. To them the evidence points to it so they believe it. They can’t choose to believe the opposite of the evidence. When yourind interprets evidence and believes something you can’t just switch to some other belief. It doesn’t work. You can’t believe in Islam because you don’t. Islam has warnings about unbelief the same way Christianity does yet you don’t believe Muhammad? Why not just choose to believe in Islam right now?
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Yeah, but faith is also trust.

You can have faith and still struggle to understand matters of religion if you have trust.

For example, let’s say you there is an atheist born to a devout Catholic family. The kid struggled with his religion and then when in college took courses and and became atheist. This would be because he placed his trust in what he learned in college instead of in what his parents taught him.

The first step to believing someone is to trust them. (The first step to believing conspiracy theories is to not trust the authorities.)

So first and for most, faith is not a matter of reason, it’s matter of trust. Only after trust, can faith become reasonable.

I pray this is helpful
 
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wkj_123 said:
No matter how many times it’s said you choose what you believe it’s just not true. You do not just pick what you believe. Beliefs are shaped by upbringing, culture, evidence, etc. You can’t just flip a switch and believe something different. You couldn’t do it right now if you tried.
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But that’s not really what faith is. As I stated in my previous post, faith is, first and foremost, trust.

That’s why say thing like:
I have faith in my children
I have faith in my spouse
I have faith in my parents
I have faith in my students
I have faith in my teachers
I have faith in my God.

Most religion is about having faith in someone; that someone is God; and in Christianity, that someone is the Divine Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of Triune God
 
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Satan wants us not to believe. And so he lies. And once you’re aware of his lies it’s actually very easy to spot them. This is not to mean that every instance of unbelief is because of him. God also gives us free will. So it’s a combination of factors.
 
I know some people who honestly try to have faith but either don’t understand it or just think that science explains everything. Good people, very nice, even though I don’t agree with them.
 
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