Are ideas innate?

In Book I or his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argues that we do not have innate ideas. He is, of course, famous for his theory of the mind that pictured the mind as a blank slate at birth, as a tabula rasa. His theory is in contrast with that of the continental rationalists, who argue that we are born with some innate knowledge. Early on in the Essay, Locke claims that there are no innate ideas, and throughout Book I he seeks to dismantle various arguments favoring innateness. One of the ideas that he considers likely to be innate is the idea of God. Earlier, Descartes said that the idea of God is imprinted on the human mind as a sort of craftsman’s stamp. However, when Locke evaluates the argument using his measure of “children and idiots,” he finds that the idea of God is not, in fact, innate; it must be taught. The idea of God is not usually present in the minds of children, and when it is, Locke says the idea is a far better representation of the idea of the child’s teacher than of the a God that actually exists.