Without labels we can not exist as we can not exist without words.

And that's good until we just create and use labels.

But at the moment labels conquer our thinking and program it, things can get worse.
Therefore, we must always leave blank drawers in our brain for "types" that are new and unknown for us, or are in a “between” position; and not only to see labels instead of the people behind them.

I also do not think atheism and agnosticism is the same thing. The agnostic stance with regard to things that can not prove are not provable would be better suited to any truth-seeker and would contribute to the objectivism of scientists, researchers, scholars, writers, etc.

But there are many disturbing things in , whose absurdity can be proven (for example, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception). This is where agnostics, atheists, and any kind of truth-seekers can meet.

Sorry but society has conditioned us to choose just one and then to believe that it is the only acceptable one.
So for people challenge another person’s anything is just natural social behavior but good rant by the way

My experiences agnostic is not knowing,if you don't know there's a God if you're not 100% convinced make no bones about it you are an atheist. Anyway faith is pretending to know what you don't know. And if you can't show it you don't know it.

I will share that I dislike when a person tells me I can not be an atheist /agnostic or visa versa. Atheist is simply my belief. Agnostic is my scientific position. I am a Humanist too. I believe there is not a god(s), However, I can not prove it factually. Both theses terms are important in my self-identity a part of me. Thank for the thoughtful writing.

I choose to go by Atheist simply because it is more clear to those who are less knowledgeable than you, and many others on this site. Both terms fit most of us because strong disbelief in the existence of a god and one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of or a god are not mutually exclusive. I really doubt there is a god, to the tune of less than 1%, but I cannot say it is zero and so here we are. Many would have a similar stance with some degree of movement on the %. Others just don't care enough involve math. Either should be accepting of the other.

Personally, I think that claiming to be certain there is no God or similar supernatual deity is as arrigant and intellectually dishonest as claiming there is one (while I will agree that if there is such a deity, he/she/they have yet to be defined by any holy text or religious teaching).
As for the dogma of religion, I consider myself an anti-theist as well as an atheist since I see the harm of religion and religious dogma which does not mean that I support forcing people to leave their faith as that would not only be unethical, but counter-productive. I could care less about how religious the general public let alone an individual is, I would just want them to accept the teachings of science, learn to think critically, and keep their religion out of schools and impressionable children.
As for the original question you posed, I think considering yourself an agnostic means that you can't say one way or the other whether or not there is a God while being an atheist means you lack belief. I do not think that the terms are mutually exclusive either as you mentioned previously.

This is great and very thought provoking! Thank you for taking the time to spell out your concerns about terminology and how people define themselves. It really is crazy how twonwords can carry so many different meanings for different people. For me, until this post at least, I’ve always seen myself as an atheist per the dictionary definition listed (this after far too many years stuck in Christianity). This post has made me think a lot about what I actually think and feel about religions, not just the one. I think, for the time being at least, I still remain in believing myself an atheist, but perhaps with agnostic tendencies (if that’s even possible- I don’t know). I will say this though- for me, even if a god, lets use the Christian god for this example, were proved to be real right now, I still would not follow it. If a god is supposed to be all powerful and loving, how can it let all these terrible things happen to people it claims to love. It either doesn’t have the power it claims, or it is not the loving being it claims to be. Either way is unacceptable and I’d much rather go to whatever hell it would send me to than worship it.

well, by your definition, you're an agnostic, and that's what you call yourself when pressed for a label, which i understand is sometimes annoying. mazel tov! you appear to understand the difference and you appear to have chosen the more accurate term for yourself. further, you've managed to do it without calling atheists arrogant for pretending to know the unknowable, or intimating that agnostics are timid or uncommitted and should probably just shut up, or comparing atheism to a religion because the word "believe" sometimes pops up in a sentence, or pretending the two words are completely synonymous. that's unusual here! i am (among many, many other things, while still not being a thing) an atheist, myself. nice to meet you!

g

The big division which really counts, is between holding groundless belief or not, the niceties within scepticism are tiny and unimportant compared with that. Some may think that they are on a higher rung of the ladder than others, and that may be true, but the really important thing is to have looked up and started the climb out of the cesspit of ignorance and prejudice which is blind unquestioning , looking at the light and not swimming nose down among the sludge where the users want to keep you. Therefore it is cruel and unfair to despise those who can not climb quite as fast, or use a different ladder, and for that reason I always call myself a 'Broard Church Sceptic.'

I like to use the word freethinker when around christians. It seems to confuse them and keeps their hate at idle for me to escape. When I use the word agnostic I get the comeback question Atheist?
For the same reasons I avoid using the word gun so as not to be labeled killer.
You see I just don’t like Fucking Labels but just for addressing letters as (snail) .

I'm an Atheist because I believe in zero gods.

I'm an agnostic because I have no knowledge of a God.

Edit

The fact that lots of people thing that agnosticism is a middle ground, or a lack of decision about belief is huge.
As far as I see the agnostic refuses to believe, an agnostic wants to know, and if the question can't be answered he/she won't choose an answer by gut feelings.
For philosophical reasons I consider myself agnostic or even ignostic (where I question even if there is a coherent question or definition of good before a decide about answering the existence question), but for all practical actions and decisions, I will act as if there is no divinity, so no practical day-to-day difference from an atheist.

BUT.
A lot of new age, exoterics, mystics and undecided people claim the agnosticism, and much of this fight between atheists and agnostics are due to this group that in the strict sense are religious.

My toughs about agnosticism is:
I recognize that I don't need to assume a position about a question that can't be answered with evidences. And I will act on the premises of the questions that I can answer.

Really

I consider myself an agnostic theist. I believe there is a "higher power" but don't believe I'm in possession of enough evidence to define that power. I don't think the power is an intelligent being who divvies out favors based on who prays the most eloquently or demonstrates the most piousness, but a force like gravity or inertia that follows measurable laws and offers consistent results.

Perfect (in my opinion)!!!! Thank you silvereyes so much for writing what I've been saying (or at least screaming inside my head) for decades, especially the parts about hating labels.

I am with you. I can be both atheist and agnostic depending on the day. For the most part I am atheist but some times I wonder the possibility of some greater power. Often when I do I come to the conclusion that if there is some great creator our universe is likely a child's ant farm in our perspective, bought at Wal-Mart as a birthday present and exciting at first then forgotten.

The term agnostic was coined as a sarcastic joke after being repeatedly asked to state his position on belief in a god. The term he made up the term using the name of a sect of Christianity called the Nostics who claimed to know the exact will of God. By adding the A he turned it into the opposite meaning not knowing the will of God. That's not the common meaning anymore. The term Atheist was so associated with negative labels the religious community has successfully attached that many felt a need to create a new term with less negative associations. Agnostic has become that term. I'm still an atheist.

Nice I like it

I have always thought the same as you. Oddly enough I think the term atheist just gives theists more power. It actually gives theists the idea that they are on the same playing field, because of course no honest person can claim to know if we were created by something greater or not.

It could just be my chances when talking to atheists, but it seems they more often say things that disprove the biblical god and act like knowing all the physics behind our world is somehow proof that there is no god. Proving the Abrahamic god is false and knowing everything about physics still doesn’t prove that the system wasn’t set up by something else. Even if it becomes pointless to know, which I believe it is, it still won’t prove or disprove that we aren’t in a simulation.

Also being agnostic does NOT at all mean you think god may exist. It just means you don’t know, and often agnostics don’t even care, which usually isn’t an atheists position. In fact it sets up religious folk up with the most annoying comebacks of all “you can’t prove that god doesn’t exist, just like I can’t prove he does” and “if you are so sure that he doesn’t exist, you are believing with religious faith, then I guess that is your religion”
Whereas an agnostic person knows its ok not to know things and is content with the facts that some things are unknowable...which is very much a more honest and scientific stance if you think about it. Scientists don’t claim to know things they don’t and are ok with that, it wouldn’t be scientific any other way.

At best any athest who understands how the scientific model works can only claim there is no god as a hypothesis not a theory. It isn’t a theory until it withstands scrutiny and heavy testing.

You're right...maybe spend a bit too much time over nothing, though.

Best rant ever silvereyes. I've read up on this and found an article by a guy defining a true agnostic. His beef with militant athiest was simple--I don't know if there is or is not a god, and I'm fine with admitting I DON'T KNOW. To him, the beauty of being agnostic is to be able to admit "I don't know the answer." Too many people insist on being right, both in the theist and atheist world. I agreed with his essay 100%. If you don't have evidence, don't pretend to know the answer. I don't know, so I am open to the possibility of a higher power. That power has not revealed itself to me as of this post, so I can't say for certain if there is one.

Seems to me theres confusion here about the word "believe." Which is understandable. Google the definition of that word and you get two rather contradictory definitions. We can't define words like agnostic and atheist without first knowing what we mean by the word believe and the problem from where Im sitting is that people use that word differently. I tend to view belief as more of a supposition rather than knowledge, and therefore I don't see atheism as distinct from agnosticism.

As my Dad used to say...agnostics aren't sure if there's a god. Atheists are!

This is why dialogue/ conversation is important. Not just definitions...
Atheism is a lack of belief. Not that there is an active belief that there is no god.
Just break the word down:
A = Without, no
Theism = Belief in a god/ deity.
But regardless of the definition that you so choose, what matters is what the majority of Atheists stances are.
And they will all state lack of belief. Not an active belief.

This is too short, please make it longer