Well, if you mean to say “hey, if you believe in a god, more power to you, and maybe you’re right, but I don’t know if there is a god at all much less your god” … then that’s along the lines of “agnostic”. However, simply saying that you don’t believe something that someone else does --no matter how fervently they believe it-- isn’t the same as shooting them all the middle finger. That’s what the intolerant would have you believe but you don’t have to buy into it.
Face it: no matter what religion a theists believes, most of the world completely disagrees with them. When I was young, it was popular to say that all the world’s religions basically taught the same thing, but the more I studied, the further that seemed from the truth. There are huge differences between major Protestant sects, between Protestant and Catholic, and completely stunning differences between Christianity and Judaism. Heck, not all the “major world religions” believe in a “god” (in more than the most vaguely comparable sense) and we know, as a matter of historical fact, that neighboring congregations of the same sect in the US often recieved opposing messages (e.g. the black church vs the white church in even the smallest towns in Alabama, during the civil rights era) That’s no accident: neighboring congregations often came into existence because of a fundamental schism
Most people don’t know the details of their own church’s theology and don’t really care – much less the details of any other religion. They know that the person in the next pew or family, much less the next congregqations, woul likey turn out disagree with them on fundamental theological issues, if examined closely but they don’t think about it, because they don’t really believe that there is a knowable answer, and they fully intend to come up with their own flavor of theism, as suits them. That’s true on every continent and every religion I know. It’s also why deep religious discussion can be so touchy, even in a church.
In my book, faith that can’t declare exactly what it believes isn’t faith at all, just a wish to belong, but that’s just me.
I don’t think that being a member of a large religious sect is any more ‘respectful’, just because you’re showing (slightly) fewer people the finger.
If a firm belief that there is no god or gods is important to your values, then be an atheist as proudly as a Hindu is a Hindu. if you simply doubt, then doubt, though it makes you more of an agnostic. How insecure does someone have to be to consider that a slap at them? Frankly, those who are offended by atheists are very often equally or more offended by theists of different colors. So who’s showing whom the finger?
