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IIRC, when a person is conceived, a soul is brought before God whom it knows or recognizes well, who decides on its traits and puts it into a fetus, which studies the Torah with an angel for a couple of months and then at once forgets it all.

I wonder, how come the fetus' soul forgets/doesn't know the very reality of God's existence to the point that no child has an innate theistic perception and everyone has to be educated of theism?

N.B. This is not special to the Jews, there's no reason to assume that gentile souls are unfamiliar with God before coming down to Earth (and they aren't having any traumatic experiences with angels).

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    How do you know the natural state of a child is non-theistic?
    – Double AA
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 3:06
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    Didn't you answer your own question? The unborn child "studies the Torah and then forgets it all", and that includes (and primarily consists of) knowing "the reality of God's existence."
    – Mordechai
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 20:17
  • @Mordechai Forgetting God is not explicitly mentioned. Besides, isn't the soul ascending to heaven every night?
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 11:09

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Rav Elchanan Wasserman asks a similar question in Kovetz Ma'amarim 1.

He writes that just by looking around the world in a simple manner, one is aware that G-d created the world and one does not need to be convinced by complicated philosophical arguments. He brings evidence to this approach from the fact that the Rambam counts belief in God as one of the six hundred and thirteen commandments. Since every thirteen-year-old Jewish boy and twelve-year-old Jewish girl is obligated in this commandment, it is clear that belief in God does not require intense philosophical training or advanced intellectual ability. Additionally, the Halakha obligates every gentile to believe in God and fulfill the seven Noahide commandments, including even those whose lifestyle does not allow for academic achievement or intellectual advancement. This expectation would be unjust if belief in God is not easily attained by any normal human being.

R. Elchonon asks if it is a basic fact how can anyone honestly doubt the existence of God?

He answers that in fact it is impossible to honestly doubt God’s existence. Rather, R. Elchanan finds the explanation for the phenomenon of disbelief in the Torah’s prohibition of bribery. The Torah, when forbidding the acceptance of bribes, explains that “you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning” (Devarim 16:19). Bribery has the power to corrupt the intellect and prevent one from thinking logically, as evidenced by the testimony of the Torah and the many stories of Talmudic sages whose judgment was biased by a whiff of bribery. If a small sum of money has the power to corrupt our reasoning, then certainly the bribe offered by the evil inclination – i.e. that if we deny God’s existence then we can then indulge our passions without restraint – has the power to blind us to the truth and pervert our intellect to the extent that we can deny the undeniable fact of God’s existence. The sole explanation for disbelief is that it stems from a moral failing. One who is beholden to his desires will experience a strong subconscious bias to reach a conclusion that justifies his lifestyle, and will therefore conclude, against all logic, that God does not exist.

@DoubleAA Look at the Chovos Halvovos 1:6 who brings a parable to explain the absurdity of atheists.
Once a rabbi met with a king. The king asked him the question, “How do you know of the existence of the Creator?” The Rabbi asked the king to leave the room. On the table was a quill, an inkwell and some paper. While the king was out of the room, the rabbi wrote a beautiful poem on the paper. When the king returned he noticed the poem and was amazed at its poetic style. The ink was still wet and the king praised the rabbi for writing such a beautiful poem. The Rabbi replied that he had not written the poem, rather, he had taken the inkwell, poured it onto the paper and the letters had formed themselves.

The king ridiculed such a suggestion saying that it was impossible for the ink to arrange itself into a single letter, let alone a word, let alone a sentence, and certainly not into a beautiful poem! The rabbi replied, “There is your answer. If the ink can't form a poem without the hand of a poet, then certainly the world, which is infinitely more complex than the poem, could not possibly form itself without the hand of a Master Creator!”

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  • Thank you. First, Rambam already proposed that God's existence is self-evident from the Creation. Second, how do we distinguish if there's no feeling, to begin with or there's a strong feeling inhibited by the evil inclination?
    – Al Berko
    Commented Jul 31, 2021 at 23:54
  • @AlBerko That is what Rav Elchanan Wasserman is explaining that since the God's existence is self-evident from the Creation, then naturally a child should automatically recognize G-d. However, due to the evil inclination and the material pleasures in the world which can cloud ones belief in God's existence, it is necessary to educate him.
    – Moz
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 9:59
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    You realize the atheists say the exact same thing about us? That we make forced irrational arguments to justify a God because we're scared to admit there isn't one?
    – Double AA
    Commented Aug 1, 2021 at 13:53
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 2, 2021 at 13:03
  • I'm guessing Rav Elchanan Wasserman's Kovetz Ma'amarim 1 you reference is the same one @ba references in his answer to "Will A Non Jew who did not keep the Noachide Laws be Held Accountable". There, he brings a link to Otzar HaHochma's scan of the book.
    – Tamir Evan
    Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 15:13

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