Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and thats not a joke

[trotsky]

61. Some responses to your 3+ year old blog post:

https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/confused-science-writer-claims-that-atheists-might-not-exist/

...religion might well be the byproduct of evolved tendencies: tendencies to see agency (as Boyer thinks), to be credulous when we’re young (it’s adaptive to believe what your elders tell you), or to deal with our unique and dispiriting knowledge of mortality. But we can overcome all these tendencies, and many of us atheists have. Certainly most of the readers of this site go on functioning perfectly well knowing that we’re going to die without an afterlife, and believing pretty confidently that there is no God.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2014/07/17/another-moronic-claim-that-atheists-dont-exist/

I count myself among those who does believe that there may well be elements of human development that make us more likely to believe in supernatural agency, particularly a tendency toward dualism. But anyone who leaps from that idea to claim that “atheism is psychologically impossible” needs to take a remedial course in logic immediately. This is the mother of all non-sequiturs.

http://unsettledchristianity.com/it-is-nearly-impossible-for-an-atheist-to-exist-or-science-writers-for-that-matter-science/

Indeed, the conclusions in Lawton’s original piece may in fact surprise the “science writer.” Basically, his assumptions go like this. Atheists can’t exist because humans are hardwired to express/desire the common elements found in religion. You should be able to see through that pretty easily.

But, I want to add another wrinkle, if I may. What if there are no believers or atheists? If free will is an illusion, then we are but what we are meant to be in some fashion. This doesn’t mean I am in favor of determinism, but if our “choices'” are shaped by external influences, then our choices are chained to that which surrounds us. Thus, if one is an atheist or a believer, then it has something to do with an outside influence and cannot be the individual’s choice. Thus, there is no conscious effort to believe in God (thus, no believers) and there is no free will analysis capable of producing an unbelief in God (thus, no atheists) because we follow the path laid out before us and can only work within those influences.

Some interesting thoughts that cast more than a little doubt on your "science" "article."