One-Fifth of Americans Have No Religious Affiliation

[progree]

6. I'm sorry, I consider myself an atheist, but I don't claim to KNOW there is no God

Last edited Thu May 10, 2018, 10:33 AM - Edit history (1)

The most common definitions of atheist / atheism don't include any qualifier about certainty.

Then there are definitions of "strong atheists" and "weak atheists" and more ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

atheism.about.com's definitions of atheism
http://atheism.about.com/od/definitionofatheism/a/definition.htm

I call myself an atheist, because I believe in atheism (no gods, no supernatural...) with about 90% certainty. I'm not 100% sure. Likewise, most people who call themselves atheists do not say they are completely sure, according to a poll conducted by Free Inquiry.

Many Christians believe in Christianity (belief in God, in the divinity of Jesus and so on -- there is no "maybe" or "possibly" in the definitions of Christianity), but many Christians aren't 100% sure of all or any of the tenets of Christianity. We don't call Christians "arrogant" (just for being Christians) and Christians don't divide into 2 camps - "Christ-eists" for ones who are 100% sure, and "Chrisnostics" for those who aren't 100% sure. And they don't have the "Christ-eists" calling the "Christnostics" wishy-washy fence sitters. And they don't have the "Chrisnostics" calling the "Christ-eists" arrogant and stupid (for claiming to know the unknowable).

I don't know why atheists got tarred and feathered with the notion that they are arrogantly 100% sure. Whereas in every other belief, there is no assumption that the believers are completely, absolutely, and totally 100% sure. I think it is strange that non-believers in God who aren't absolutely certain there is no god (as most aren't) feel the need to find some other name (like "agnostic" ).