Are babies born Muslim or Atheist?
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The concept God is mostly the result of a rationalisation of the basic feeling of not being in control and that since everything in life offers some sense, and the whole makes sense, even if we do not agree with that sense, we make a rational concept like God.
The baby does not have that, the baby is at a much more elemental level but sure it know that it is dependent, completely dependent.
So the logical reasoning is that in order for everything to happen and making an altogether complex but connected picture there must be some control, which is beyond our power or understanding, that is what the Qur'an calls the "ghaib", the ocult.
So this thing, God or no God depends of what the person who says it puts in the word "God".
Salaam
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None knows anything about a just-born; only Allah wholesomely knows about it even as it was carried as fetus in its mother's womb 53/32; similarly the just-born knows only its creator Allah and in its soul and mind there is nothing left for imaginations besides Him, to look upon with Salam as 'Truly Yours' feeling; and hence are shirk-free and muslims at birth.
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Children are born with neutrality with a leaning towards good. It is the world around them which turns them away because they are in beast bodies which follow instincts and reflexes and thus they become biased. Under optimal (often utopian) circumstances, where the child has good parents and environment, a child would grow up and be the perfect role model, but it seldom happens. Fortunately there is always possibility for reformation when the subject is fully mature, experienced and wise, and thus reevaluated and contemplated the world they live in to realize the truth despite misaligned surroundings.
The beast bodies people are in are their worst enemy turning them away as they give in to its animalistic nature. If they distance themselves to it and learn to see when it is it which is calling then they may get on the right track.
Salaam
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) Good question
Research is done on this
Human beings have natural tendencies to believe in God and life after death, according to a three-year international research project directed by two academics at the University of Oxford.
The 1.9 million pounds project involved 57 researchers who conducted over 40 separate studies in 20 countries representing a diverse range of cultures.The studies (both analytical and empirical) conclude that humans are predisposed to believe in God and an afterlife, and that both theology and atheism are reasoned responses to what is a basic impulse of the human mind, a university release said.
The researchers point out that the project was not setting out to prove the existence of God or otherwise, but sought to find out whether concepts such as Gods and an afterlife appear to be entirely taught or basic expressions of human nature.
'The Cognition, Religion and Theology Project' led by Dr Justin Barrett, from the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford University, drew on research from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology.
They directed an international body of researchers conducting studies in 20 different countries that represented both traditionally religious and atheist societies.
The findings are due to be published in two separate books by psychologist Dr Barrett in Cognitive Science, Religion and Theology and Born Believers The Science of Childhood Religion.
The studies by Emily Reed Burdett and Justin Barrett suggest that children below the age of five find it easier to believe in some superhuman properties than to understand similar human limitations.
Children were asked whether their mother would know the contents of a box in which she could not see.
Children aged three believed that their mother and God would always know the contents, but by the age of four, children start to understand that their mothers are not all-seeing and all knowing.
However, children may continue to believe in all-seeing, all-knowing supernatural agents, such as a God or Gods.
Experiments involving adults, conducted by Jing Zhu from Tsinghua University (China), and Natalie Emmons and Jesse Bering from The Queen's University, Belfast, suggest that people across many different cultures instinctively believe that some part of their mind, soul or spirit lives on after-death.
The studies demonstrate that people are natural 'dualists' finding it easy to conceive of the separation of the mind and the body.
Project Director Dr Justin Barrett, from the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind, said "This project does not set out to prove God or Gods exist. Just because we find it easier to think in a particular way does not mean that it is true in fact. If we look at why religious beliefs and practices persist in societies across the world, we conclude that individuals bound by religious ties might be more likely to cooperate as societies.
"Interestingly, we found that religion is less likely to thrive in populations living in cities in developed nations where there is already a strong social support network."
Project Co-Director Professor Roger Trigg, from the University of Oxford's Ian Ramsey Centre, said "This project suggests that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf. We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature across different societies.
"This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the existence of supernatural agents or Gods, and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life." source http//archive.indianexpress.com/news/its-natural-to-believe-in-god-says-oxford-study/789599/0
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Traditionalists are of the view that all babies are born Muslim. However some Atheists claim that all babies are born atheist. God mentions in the Quran that every living or non living thing except the minds of ingrates submit to God alone but human babies are not mentioned specifically. What do you think?
Salam
goto 642
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642 does not say people are created either kafar or mumen but that there are both branches. It says of you kafar and of you mumen, even among you etc if to make a rational translation in English. It is not affirming that people are born either way but what paths people take. And the passage ends that ALLAH sees what you do meaning GOD is aware of the deeds associated with both paths. There is a conscious path-taking or the ending of the sentence would be very inconsistent.
A kafar pursues selfish and corrupted ways while a mumen works to be realized in GOD through behavior, actions and deeds in so called imitation of the GOD phenomenon. The first grows his seeds towards the permanency of his bodily appearance while the latter for a dissolution and return in oneness to GOD to belong to the phenomenon called ALLAH in Arabic.
The etymology of kafar is tilling/farming the land by placing seeds (so-called covering the land with them) and such parable can also be applied for the kafaroon Quran usually talks about. They grow something instead of becoming lighter, cover the land so it cannot be seen, but their crime is that they distort because the seeds are corrupted and the land is Quran and why GOD is so furious with such people in Quran. They shovel dirt at Quran and everything else for that sake and they lie. They are al-zalamiin (in darkness).
In the end it is just all about good versus evil. The easiest path towards good is combating the self, your instincts are the devil who wants to be firmly fixed here.
Anyway, I am interested in going back to research further on kafar. It has been interesting and yielded intriguing results. Disbelief is as far away from the word as one can get though but probably induced by liars who were kafaroon themselves. Kafar is often recurring with the word for lying kaf-dha-ba fairly often, for a reason. When they occur the Arabic says "Those who distort and lie", usually referring to the clergy and scholars of religious doctrines, rather than something about classical disbelief (refer to kafar and its etymological meaning of tilling the land). Please analyze the text contextually and you will find that kafar is usually occuring when talking about invented doctrines and such. And why in the world is GOD sounding like a man who would self-ignite and explode over mere disbelief? What kind of GOD is that? GOD could care less, but GOD is mad with people who corrupt things on the other hand.
I am wondering a bit over why people never reconsider the word kafar in these "free-minded" quarters.
What makes people bad is the environment and humans' instinctive tendency to imitate others and idolize others plus their drive towards selfishness, the ego. Their main antagonist is their ego and their animalistic beast body they are trapped within. When we are not like lemmings we are at our best. It is better to reinvent the (better) wheel than to reuse an existig biased blueprint. We should question everything in our lives including ourselves opposite of what religious dogma says, but we need also to acquire wisdom.
But with certainty can be said that it is the world, the environment, which makes people bad in general, even if we have certain responsibility ourselves, at least when we can evaluate and assess ourselves, but then the beast usually prevents us.
Salaam
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The Monotheist Group (The Quran A Monotheist Translation)
3030 So establish yourself to the system of monotheism. It is the inclination that God has nurtured the people on. There is no changing in the creation of God. Such is the pure system, but most of the people do not know. -
Salamun Alaikum.
The question asks are babies born Muslim or Atheist? The question implicitly assumes "Atheist" is the opposite of the term muslim - which is an incorrect assumption to begin with. From Quranic usage the opposite of muslim is criminal (Ref 6835).
So, the correct question should be "Are babies born muslim (peacemaker/submissive) or muzrimeen (criminal)?".
The answer is obvious. No child is born criminal.
OR one can ask "Are babies born theist or atheist?"
The answer will again be obvious. Babies are not born with an intellectual capacity to form any opinion on theism.May Allah guide us all to the straight route.
Regards,
Arman -
The Qurn teachs us that
~ All Goodness is due to our Merciful Master (479), The Divine (One).
The BAD outcomes that befall us/humans are but the effects of our own malicious deeds (of disobedience/indiscipline).
Thus, all Adamites are born sound/whole, unless their negligent (unsound) ancestor/s cause them birth defects!Add.
Babies are born without previous knowledge (167, meaning without bias
= It's the subjective indoctrination (of the former/Adamites) that turn things upside down.SLM
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642 does not say people are created either kafar or mumen but that there are both branches. It says of you kafar and of you mumen, even among you etc if to make a rational translation in English. It is not affirming that people are born either way but what paths people take. And the passage ends that ALLAH sees what you do meaning GOD is aware of the deeds associated with both paths. There is a conscious path-taking or the ending of the sentence would be very inconsistent.
......Salaam
Salam
Children are born at zero level neither positive nor negative that is the information 642 is pointing please note the word <em>faminkum</em> meaning ??then among you ...?
This world is like an examination hall 672
Therefore we are here to make a choice 7437
To write an exam or make a choice we need some knowledge
But we came into this world knowing nothing 1678
Thus we are acquiring everything we know after our birth. -
Well, I would say children are born innately aligned towards good. There are psychological experiments which point towards this. Psychology is among one of my interest points. The world causes people to be evil basically together with the instinctive drive. It is a dangerous combination and that children (also adults to an extent) are by nature set to imitate others.
Quran and elder texts such as the testimonies written by the followers of Jesus clearly show that there is a distinction to be made between the spirit and the body. This difference between body and soul causes progressive conflicts in ourselves towards the dissolution (traditionally called salvation) and, the Transition (al-akhar). When we listen too much to the animal/beast in us then we have a clear problem. Prophets have warned against this. We are (or at least were) a perfect spirit but we get biased by the animal-like creature we are attached to (Homo Sapiens).
Faminkum kafar wa minkum mumen means just that some of you are kafar and some of you are mumen AND GOD sees all that you do which implies that it is a cognitive path-taking.
Salaam
