You're just not getting it, iano. I'm an atheist who lacks belief. I lack belief in a god or gods in the same way I lack belief that there are maple trees in South Africa. Why, there may be a whole damn grove of maple trees in South Africa, but since I don't know about it and no one has ever shown me any evidence of maple trees in South Africa I have no reason to believe they're there. Neither do I believe that there
aren't maple trees in South Africa. I don't know if there are any maple trees there, and what's more important
I don't care.
It's the same with god(s). I don't believe there is a god, I don't believe there isn't a god. I don't know and I don't care.
Since you brought it up, let's have a look at the dictionary definition of 'atheist' and contrast it with 'agnostic':
atheist (th-st) noun
One that disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.
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agnostic (g-nstk) noun
One who believes that there can be no proof of the existence of God but does not deny the possibility that God exists.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
I'm not entirely happy with the definition of 'atheist' since it uses the word 'disbelieve', which implies action. If we grant a bit of lattitude to that word and interpret it to mean 'fails to believe', though, we are on target, at least so far as I'm concerned. In any case, according to these definitions I am much closer to an atheist than an agnostic.
"I think younger workers first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is." George W. Bush, May 4, 2005
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