Expert: Philip A. Stahl - 11/19/2008

Question
Hi,

What is the usual age that a person become atheist? I read that usually a person becomes atheist in teenage or atleast in early 20s and if not, it is very unlikely that he will become atheist after that? Is that true?

Regards

Answer
Hello,

There is really no set age at which a person becomes an atheist. There are some, in fact, who are fortunate to be born into atheist families who learn atheism "at mom's knee" so to speak. They then go forward and invoke atheist thought and principles throughout their life without having actually made some formal transition.

For others, like me, it was often a long, drawn out process taking decades. We always held some degree of skepticism that supernatural and G-o-d claims were not what they were cracked up to be, but it took years for us to prove this for ourselves.

For me, the path took me through three years at a Catholic University (taking courses in theology, comparative religion, biblical exegesis, ethics, etc.) and some ten to twelve years later I rejected all religious claims as unproven - including "soul", "God", "Heaven and Hell", as well as all the most extraordinary claims pertaining to Jesus. (Unlike many atheists, btw, I DO believe that there was a historical personage who might be known as "Yeshua" or "Jesus" but I disavow he performed miracles, or was a god-man)

One problem I have observed in those "becoming atheist" in their early 20s, is that they frequently have not done the philosophical ground work to consolidate their positions. Thus it is at some later point they often revert back to religion, if not Christianity - then some other form. C.S. Lewis fell victim to this reverse backslide.

My belief is that Lewis succumbed because he was too young to become an atheist and only had the basic notions, but hadn't developed them in depth. Hence, he was later swayed by Catholic arguments (he converted to Catholicism) which are amongst the most outrageous in the constellation of organized religion. I mean truly, eating the supposed "body" of a man already dead for 2000 years! Give me a break!

So, contrary to your supposition, I think it more true that a typical person who becomes an atheist in his 20s won't likely last until his 50s, or 60s. Though, again, I am not saying such a thing is impossible. Only, again, that if you haven't developed your personal philosophy in depth, it is hard to see how you will preserve it. And I dispute most kids out of college have that capacity. Heck, most of these kids, according to survey tests and exams, even flunk basic U.S. history! How would they be able to challenge subtle philosophical points? How many even take a single course in philosophy? How many can distinguish between epistemology and ontology?

The ability to do this consistently generally arrives via age and maturity, to be able to reckon in much more nuance to challenge and neutralize more nuanced Christian or religionist or God-claimants' arguments.

Among the most powerful arguments that we can summon as a mature person against God-belief are those from ontology. Applying this to the ontology of the claim for a “non-contingent creator” (an entity whose existence doesn't depend on anything else), the latter must be shown to exist independently of being thought of by humans or any other sentient life form.

No God-believer I have ever met in 39 years of debating has been able to do this, far less offer a specific definition of his deity - without which any claims to 'proof' are suspect. (And, of course, such a definition ought to include the statement of the necessary and sufficient conditions for it to exist).

A related argument begins with the question: Why is there something (e.g. cosmos) at all? Why not nothing? Given nothingness is the most perfect state imaginable, no imperfection, no "sin", no "evil" - why would an entity - G-o-d, find it necessary to "create" anything - which (if he was omniscient) would surely know the creation had to be replete with defective beings who would commit the very "evil" he is supposedly against.

My point is that these advanced arguments are not likely to be made by 20 year olds, no matter how sincere they appear as atheists. It takes time and application - in my case nearly 40 years of honing debates - to make one a deeply committed atheist who isn't likely to be "conversion" fodder for religionists and god-mongers.