The main thing is that it’s up to you how you want to call yourself. I have a friend who calls himself agnostic, but his beliefs are atheistic in my view

Atheists commonly define atheism to be lack of god belief, so you’d qualify. Merriam Webster defines an atheist as, “one who believes that there is no deity,” which doesn’t sound like you. Most dictionaries (American Heritage, OED) agree with this definition. Wikipedia notes that Encyclopedia Britannica and a few other sources include the broader definition I mentioned at the top (lack of belief). There’s a whole section in the article dealing with various understandings of the word and subcategories within atheism. Lack of belief of the kind you describe is usually characterized as “weak atheism”.

Posted: November 13th 2009

See all questions answered by George Locke

I would add that an agnostic atheist (most atheists fit that bill), need to base their lack of god belief (that is, atheism) on the glaring fact that there is not sufficient evidence to have god belief.

Atheists who have lack of god belief because of inadequate evidence will not only not deny the existence of god(s), they will not bother with the meaningless concept at all. Hence, they are not godbotherers just as they don’t bother with Santa, the tooth fairy, Zeus, and the pink unicorn.

I consider anyone who has a lack of god belief because there is no evidence to be an atheist. If you have no god belief because you have not applied critical thinking about it or your family/culture has not and you have become a de facto atheist who has never critically thought about lacking god belief, you are a functional atheist, but not an atheist in the intellectual sense. And what you have arrived at without thinking, you can leave without thinking.

There are some theists who claim to have been atheists, but I regard them as being more as opportunistic atheists, who went along for the ride without giving it much thought because atheism was common at their university/milieu. And when they left that milieu, they became theistic because that was the milieu in which they found themselves.

Since you have not specified that your lack of god belief is based on the fact that there is not sufficient evidence, you may not be an atheist who have given thought as to the basis why you should not have any god belief.

If and when the time comes, when god belief is in the minority, the lack of evidence demonstrating the god hypothesis as meaningless will be dominant and woven into our culture just like the realization that the earth orbits the sun. But until then, we need to emphasize that it is the lack of evidence that supports no god belief, just like in not believing in the tooth fairy, Santa, and the pink unicorn because of lack of evidence, despite being agnostic about the existence of all those entities.

Posted: November 10th 2009

See all questions answered by logicel

Yes, but you are (like most of us), a weak atheist.

This isn’t as negative as it sounds. A weak atheist does not claim certain knowledge of the non-existence of all gods (how could we?), but also does not believe in any.

Posted: November 10th 2009

See all questions answered by Eshu

Sure. The lack of belief is what’s important, not whether you go around saying He’s not there. An atheist doesn’t have to be certain of that anyway.

Posted: November 10th 2009

See all questions answered by SmartLX

Yes. Since you don’t have a positive belief in a god or gods, you’re an atheist.

Posted: November 9th 2009

See all questions answered by bitbutter