Your premise is flawed because you are assuming that either atheism is
something that it isn't, or that babies are born with some knowledge
about deities.
To clarify, atheism, which is an "absence of belief in deities and
supernatural agents," is nothing more than a mere classification. All
people are born without belief in deities (which requires the conscious
conceptualization of said deities first), hence they are "absent of
belief" and are therefor classified as "atheist" as a very simple and
unrefutable matter of fact.
http://www.atheistfrontier.com/glossary/atheist.pl
There does come a point in a baby's life where they can begin to start
learning more beyond natural survival instincts that motivated a
constant search for food and comfort, such as the development of verbal
communication, and then after this goes on for some time is it possible
for the child to understand complex concepts such as values, rituals,
cause and effect, interacting (e.g., with toys and pets), deities, etc.
> Just like me. The only diff is that I *have* been given the
> choices. And now I choose to neither believe nor disbelieve.
Does that mean you're choosing to be "absent of belief in deities and
supernatural agents?" That's very different from stating that such a
determination [to believe or disbelieve] is not possible.
Note: Many atheists also make choices in addition to just having
choices presented to them.
> There is no official name for what babies and I are.
That's incorrect -- there are multiple official names such as Human,
Human Being, Tellurian, Homosapien, Person, Child (depending on your
age), Infant (once again, depending on your age), etc. One might also
use classes like Bipedal Anthropoid, Hominid, or possibly Humanistic.
With regard to the "atheist" classification, newborn babies are
automatically included due to their natural absence of belief in deities
and supernatural agents.
> You choose to see me as an agnostic? You're wrong. Agnostics either
> believe or disbelieve, and I do neither. We humans do not yet have
> what it takes to be able to discern whether or not there is a deity.
Agnosticism is well-known for its contention that it's not possible to
prove nor disprove the existence of deities and supernatural agents,
and that's distinctly different from atheism because a certain minimal
knowledge set is required to understand what that means. One area
where atheism differs is that the absence of belief carries no minimal
required knowledge nor even the capacity to conceptualize anything.
> So we either accept and believe in a deity based upon faith and faith
> alone (the vast majority), or we do not believe also based upon faith
> and faith alone. The third choice is my option, which is to neither
> believe nor disbelieve. This choice is the only proper one, since
> there is no evidence either way.
You're attempting to justify a third option by depending on a
bifurcation fallacy, thus, "trifurcation fallacy" (to put it
neologistically) is perhaps the best identification of your logical
error.
In other words, your restriction to those three possibilities (believe,
oppose belief, or contend that neither option can be validated) ignores
other options, particularly the natural atheistic one which is naturally
classified as the "absence of belief in deities and supernatural
agents" (and certainly does so without any anti-theistic sentiments).
> Theists cannot convince atheists because they have no evidence.
>
> Atheists cannot convince theists because they also have no evidence.
>
> Both arguments are unconvincing because they are both based upon faith
> and faith alone.
Your conclusion is illogical because the second part of your premise
incorrectly assumes that atheists are responsible for some burden of
proof -- because an absence of belief is not a claim or a faith, there
is nothing to prove, hence a burden of proof simply cannot apply.
> If one says, "I disbelieve in deities because there is no evidence,"
> upon what is he basing his disbelief? He bases his disbelieve on the
> fact that theists cannot produce evidence for their position. So both
> theists and atheists base their belief or disbelief on a lack of
> evidence, rather than the presence of good hard evidence. Is this not
> the heart of the definition of faith? Yes, it is.
> Ergo, the only logical conclusion is that both theists and atheists
> are blind sheep who follow a faith and trust that they are correct.
Your conclusion is illogical because the "disbelief" you cited is an
anti-theistic perspective -- it's not atheism because the anti-theistic
"opposition to belief" (which does carry a burden of proof) is very
different from the atheistic "absence of belief" (which does not carry
any burden of proof).
I also don't agree with your categorical assessment that they're all
like "blind sheep" because there are other reasons people may follow a
given religion which are not akin to this (e.g., coercion, mental
illness, medication, etc.).
> Agnostics are little better, for although agnostics do recognize that
> they may be wrong, they still either believe or disbelieve in a deity
> or deities. They are either theistic agnostics or atheistic
> agnostics. Agnostics are sheep with one eye slightly open.
Your premise is flawed because atheism isn't about being right or
wrong, it's merely an absence of belief. Granted, many atheists appear
to have a keen interest in scientific methdology, and consequently
often "objective truth," but that doesn't make us any better or worse
because atheism really is nothing more than a classification that also
lacks any idea of minimum or maximum intelligence requirements (thus
it can't really be compared).
Regarding the sub-classifications you used ("theistic agnostic" v.
"atheistic agnostic"), I don't really pay much attention to them
because I'm generally more focused on fundamental aspects, and regard
their introduction as a possible attempt at diversion on your part.
> One must go deeper for the truth. One must go beyond faith and trust
> in the lack of evidence. One must realize that we human beings are
> not yet capable of discerning whether or not a deity or deities exist.
> We must take the only stand possible, and that is to acknowledge that
> we do not have evidence nor knowledge either way. We can neither
> believe nor disbelieve in a deity or deities. We must accept that we
> do not know, that we cannot possibly know.
That's a contention that agnosticism is generally known for. I don't
agree with your fallacious bifurcation that it must apply to everyone
(mostly obviously because there are other valid options), but you are
free to make your own personal choice about whether you wish to apply
those ideas to your own life.
> There is no "official" word or name for us, although I'm sure someone
> will come up with one soon.
We're all tellurians (including our pets) regardless of beliefs.
[snip - diversion predicting how someone else may respond]
> Happy days *and*...
> Starry starry nights !
"Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars -- mere
globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and
feel them, but do I see less or more?"
-- Richard P. Feynman
--
Fidem Turbare, the non-existent atheist goddess
"And if there were a god, I think it very unlikely that he would have
such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his
existence."
-- Bertrand Russell