# Why do atheists insist that atheism is a 'non-belief'?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-insist-that-atheism-is-a-non-belief/564281>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 15, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-insist-that-atheism-is-a-non-belief/564281 "2010-12-15T20:50:56Z")\
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**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-atheists-insist-that-atheism-is-a-non-belief/564281/161 "2010-12-16T20:24:36Z")

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> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#):
>
> You define what you think your own god is, and I will let you know that I’m not buying it.

I really like the way **ataraxy22** put it in a previous poll / thread about belief:

> [@What Are Your Religious Beliefs?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-religious-beliefs/550484/57):
>
> I put agnostic, but I am atheist with regard to any religion I have ever heard of.

I’ve tended away from identifying as agnostic only because people seem so keen to argue that I \*really \*mean weak-atheist, or that agnostic mean apathetist.

Since agnostic was a term coined by a particular person to mean a particular philosophy it puzzles me that the term seems fuzzy to others. 🙂

But perhaps it’s a case of the technical use of a word differing from the casual use (rather like the meaning of “theory”). One of **Bertrand Russel** ’s quotes sum it up well:

> [@Bertrand Russell](#):
>
> As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God.
> 
> On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

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