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Why did John Locke reject the idea that humans are born with innate knowledge?

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Painting by Joseph Aubert of Saint Thomas Aquinas seated with a book, wearing a halo and black and white robes, surrounded by ornate patterns in St. Stephens Church, Jerusalem. — Western philosophy Painting of scholastic philosopher St. Thomas of Aquinas by Joseph Aubert, 1900.

In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke rejected the doctrine of innate ideas—the belief that certain moral, logical, or religious truths are imprinted on the mind at creation—primarily because he argued that an idea cannot exist in the mind unless one is conscious of it.12

Locke pointed to two major pieces of evidence to refute innateness:
* Lack of Universal Awareness: Infants possess no conception of God or complex logical and mathematical truths, which would be impossible if such knowledge were innate.2
* Cultural Diversity: Reports from travelers showed that different societies hold vastly different moral and religious beliefs, suggesting that these concepts are learned through experience rather than being universal, inborn principles.2

Instead, Locke proposed that the mind is initially a tabula rasa, or "white paper," void of all characters. He argued that all materials of reason and knowledge are derived from two sources: sensation (sense experience) and reflection (the mind's awareness of its own operations). By clearing away these "innate" assumptions, Locke sought to establish a more accurate, empirical account of how humans actually acquire knowledge.32