This feels a bit like the concept of instrumental goals—the goals we only have because they help us achieve other goals, and (assuming we are rational enough) we will drop them when we learn that they are no longer helpful for the other goals.
Maybe “accidental labels” would fit the concept—the labels we actually don’t care about, but we still happen to have them because they happened as a consequence of something else we care about; but if tomorrow we will learn otherwise, we may lose the label.
For example a person who doesn’t care about suffering of animals, but reads a convincing book about how vegan diet is healthy and decides to change their eating habits accordingly, could be called an accidental vegan. If the next book convinces them that maybe paleo diet is better, they will easily stop being a vegan.
Using an example of atheism, a person who just follows the herd, and happens to have a lot of atheist friends at the moment, can become an accidental atheist. And when they move to a different environment, they can just as easily become an accidental theist.
But a person who cares about having correct beliefs, and decides that belief in supernatural is incorrect, is also an accidental atheist. Some hypothetical evidence could turn them into an accidental theist.
So what would be a non-accidental atheist? I guess a person who dislikes the religion per se, regardless of what their friends think or whether a belief in supernatural is correct. For example someone who grew up in an abusive religious family.
This feels a bit like the concept of instrumental goals—the goals we only have because they help us achieve other goals, and (assuming we are rational enough) we will drop them when we learn that they are no longer helpful for the other goals.
Maybe “accidental labels” would fit the concept—the labels we actually don’t care about, but we still happen to have them because they happened as a consequence of something else we care about; but if tomorrow we will learn otherwise, we may lose the label.
For example a person who doesn’t care about suffering of animals, but reads a convincing book about how vegan diet is healthy and decides to change their eating habits accordingly, could be called an accidental vegan. If the next book convinces them that maybe paleo diet is better, they will easily stop being a vegan.
Using an example of atheism, a person who just follows the herd, and happens to have a lot of atheist friends at the moment, can become an accidental atheist. And when they move to a different environment, they can just as easily become an accidental theist.
But a person who cares about having correct beliefs, and decides that belief in supernatural is incorrect, is also an accidental atheist. Some hypothetical evidence could turn them into an accidental theist.
So what would be a non-accidental atheist? I guess a person who dislikes the religion per se, regardless of what their friends think or whether a belief in supernatural is correct. For example someone who grew up in an abusive religious family.