Understanding Atheism?

[Shol'va]

Atheism and agnostocism answer two different questions altogether:
-atheism is about whether or not one believes god or gods exist
-agnosticism is whether or not you think we can know a god exist
One is a question of knowledge, the other of belief.

An atheist is within reason to say "your god does not exist" if the proposed god is a logical absurdity devoid of evidence.
If being a "confident" atheist, known as positive atheist (no gods exist), then perhaps you might be more comfortable with being a weak/negative atheist.

What makes you label yourself agnostic? Because you acknowledge a god could exist? So do atheists.

[GrinningYMIR]

As an agnostic-atheist i can affirm what Stromboli said, a lot of us were former members of faith that ventilation used logic to end our religious affiliations. I myself gave up my religious a while back, but am still going through the phase where my family think I'm saying just to be cool

I buy shirts and go to conventions to be cool, I don't pretend to not believe in god to be cool

I don't believe in god because 1 it doesn't make sense, and 2 god is a dick man

[Draconic Aiur]

Here's a chart of theist to atheist.


This is the appropriate categories for theist to agnostics to atheists.

[aitm]

atheism is the belief that there is for a fact no god, and the universe was created out of thin air. Now being a physicist

that you being a "physicist" and not knowing that an atheist would never say the universe was "created" leads me to wonder what country is your education from? If you say the US then it is understandable.

[ecksperience]

Figured that, and thank you for the clarification. That's a problem, and is why I can't take atheism seriously...

The fact that there are many different definitions of atheists means that not all atheists believe(or don't believe) in exactly the same thing. I am an atheist, and I think the correct definition of atheism is the "the nonbelief in a God or creator of the universe because of the lack of evidence for it". This is similar to the nonbelief of anything that doesn't have enough evidence for it to be reasonable to be believed. However, some atheists say because of the lack of evidence of God, it is impossible for there to be a God. Some atheists, just like some theists, have a 100% conviction in their belief or disbelief.

Gnostic Atheism: Belief there is no God
Agnostic Atheism: No Belief in a God

I don't see why diversity of a group of people is a good reason for not taking that group seriously. The reason I don't take any religion seriously is because there is no evidence for it and the traditions it has is deplorable to me. It's not because there are thousands of different denominations of the Christian religion.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

I am an agnostic atheist. I don't claim to know the answer, but based on what I see I don't think there is a God. I also don't think there are leprechauns, unicorns, or fairies, but then again I have seen very little of the world. In that sense I am agnostic about most unknown things. If credible evidence came about of any of these I would have to change my views, but none has come about yet.

[Krisyork2008]

If you identify as an agnostic, but not an agnostic theist, then I hate to break it to you but you my friend are an atheist.

As previously stated, unless you claim to know something, then by definition you are agnostic. More often than not it's the religious folks that are claiming to be gnostic.

Saying "I don't know if I believe in god" is a nonsensical statement, and once removed of its shortcomings it becomes consistent with "I don't believe in god." You know if you believe in something. As a child I believed in Santa, and I "knew" he existed. I had no choice in the matter; my parents told me therefor that was my worldview. Of course once I came to the realization he was made up I had no choice but to not believe. I could never force myself to believe in Santa again.

So if you're not sure if you believe in god, then you do not actively believe. If you do not actively believe in god, you are an atheist.

It's just a word, don't shy away from it based on negative connotations given by the religious majority. I've yet to meet any atheists who eat babies, but be sure to keep your eyes open.