True atheism is a rejection of theism, not a belief. It is a refusal to believe in a system of thought merely because of childhood indoctrination. It is a rejection of myth, not of truth. Indeed, it is an embracing of evidenced truth.

I don't see belief or not as mutually exclusive. For me God is like an echo of our awareness of both our universe and living things. God as an idea actually validates that awareness regardless of how I express it in my life. And that is where I become agnostic. My experience, belongs only to me.

Still, I experience deeply personal and sacred things both in nature and the night sky. And even if we can reduce these emotions and experiences to awwwww moments, woven together, even becoming collectively woven together we begin to arrive at a collective whispering about God.

But my goodness we sure do make a whole bunch of noise about the whole mess--that's for sure. Finally, why do we not discuss whether our feelings of hunger, thirst and others to decide if they are valid or not?

Ok, I'll shoot. Oh wait. I'm not an atheist. I'm an agnostic. Sorry, didn't mean to ruin it by submitting a comment.

That is not difficult for me to answer. I don't believe anymore that a deity exists because I see absolutely no proof. Do you see proof for... unicorns? Santa Claus. Multiple headed monsters? fairies? The list goes on.

There is a diference between believing no deity exists and not beliving in deities. I don't believe in imaginary beings such as deities. I accept the possibility that they could exist but have seen no evidence to make me believe they do. It is impossible to prove something does not exist, but that is no reason to belive it does.

Everything to me is part of the same universe, we know how old it is... before time began would be just as natural, I see no reason to attribute it to a god simply because we don’t know the answer, that’s falling into the god of the gaps thing and would make us the same as a theist... agnostic seems like your trying to hedge your bets should your logic fail you. Seems to me once you have gone as far as agnostic you would have to go to hell for finding out to late and not being saved... reason enough to make the jump to athiest for me. We don’t need evidence to prove no god exists, I can make up stuff you can’t prove all day, it’s up to theists to prove he does, but once they say it’s a matter of faith the conversation is over.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

Epicurus

One of the oldest trick for the voodoobeings, that's what I call them they are no better then any other voodoo cult! is their assumption one can prove a negative, Oh contraire my dubious friends its upon you the accuser to prove that their is such a so called god! Denial is a two sided blade sword baby! it swings both ways< but in this case it can only swing one way, its how we civilized people run our lives pray on that for a while , better yet try to improve your thinking and thus improve your life instead of waiting for the sky fairy to do it! Its all just thought, then action, you got to add action as Roy Rodgers quoted you can be in the right lane but if you aren't moving, you'll
get ran over!

I dont' 'believe no deity exists that would be a complete and utter waste of my time which I cherish- I HAVE NO SKY GODS - I WANT NO SKY GODS - simple eh? you are the one who needs the proof, don't put it on me! And if you are as I suspect proseletysing - I will block you!

You capitalized the word "god," indicating a belief in the idea that an all-powerful being could possibly exist. In that case, why has this being not revealed himself/herself in order to stop confusion? There is no evidence to show that any being currently exists or have ever existed. In the case of "Higher Powers," I assume you mean deities, in which case, what makes you believe that the greek gods don't exist? It is mythology now, a dead religion. I have no problem or anger toward a god or gods, I simply don't believe that they exist. Why do you not believe in vampires? It isn't because you hate them or that it has been completely disproved, you simply don't believe in them. Based on the scientific and empirical evidence that is out at this point, I see no evidence of a deity or celestial being existing. If the evidence changes to favor one religion more so than it favors the lack of any deity existing, I will be willing to change.

While there is no evidence of its nonexistence, the nonexistence of its evidence is overwhelming.
The universe can be explained without a single god. Occham's razor: the simplest explanation is usually correct.
Since the beginning of the scientific method, the area of nature that can be attributed to a deity continually shrinks. Eventually, there will be no room left.
We know that the vast majority of bible history never happened. Even the majority of events we aren't certain of are not supported by evidence.
Modern medical science indicates that gods do not talk to sane people. Should we assume that the religious prophets of the past were mentally stable?
For these reasons among others, I choose to believe there is no god. However, if I am proven wrong, I would like to think that I would have the moral courage to refuse to worship anything as monstrous as the christians' god.

Scorpions
Bears
Sharks
T-Rex (fortunately extinct)
Well, you get my drift...

There is absolutely no evidence to support the existence of a deity. That’s it in a nutshell.

Well, I personally believe that no god does exist, mainly because there has been no good argument to believe there is one, no actual evidence suggests that there is a being of divine power. Atheism does not assert there is no god, Atheism is a rejection of belief in god claims.

I tend to lookout this issue from the other way round: what proper evidence do believers have that a deity exists? Not their scriptures, which were all started back in the Stone Age. Not their "faith", which is blind (deaf and uncritical). Not their miracles, but something I can accept as credible.

"I think atheism is based more on belief rather then empirical evidence and science"
That's what the word atheist means:
A - without
Theist - believe in one or more gods
so yeah, it's based on belief, or more accurately, the lack of one specific belief.
the default and rational position on any topic is to be unconvinced of a contention without sufficient evidence.
I do not contend that there are no deities, I am merely unconvinced by anyone's contention that deities do exist.

It's very simple, no deity has ever been shown to exist, so to start with, which one would I possibly believe in? (I enjoy "believing" in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but that's different)

Why not be agnostic then? Because any god like being that I think could possibly exist does not influence my life and world in any measurable way so why bother? You may as well ask the sun to adjust it's energy output to suit you as to pray for intervention. If there's anything out/up there, if it's worth being worshiped then it'll certainly forgive me my reluctance to worship it. If it hides itself from me then it probably doesn't wish to be found.

Physics, math, and common sense do the job for me. If we were created in his image what happened to Mrs. god? It is all a fable that the some among the people took advantage of to exploit the rest of the population and gee did it ever work!

I don't "believe no deity exists". I am an atheist because I lack belief in a higher power or powers. I also live my life by Carl Sagan's "I don't want to believe. I want to know." Which, yes, also makes me an agnostic. I have seen no convincing evidence that a deity exists, and therefore do not know whether or not one or more does.

But I still do not believe in deities.

Atheism is not a positive belief that no higher powers exist. It is the lack of belief in a higher power or powers.

A lot of it for me was the fallibility of an "infallible" god, and the inability of its followers to answer basic questions about his 'Grand Design'

All the evidence around me. I have never seen, heard or touched anything that makes me think there is a higher power or divine being. All of my experience tells me there is not.

Revise the question. I don't believe that no deity exists. The word belief just simply doesn't fit with no deity existing.

Whether or not he is real, he has no impact on my life. I see him as irrelevant, and irrelevant things are not to be considered, and are therefore excluded from my perception of reality.

To me, it's not logical that something existed before the big bang which was the beginning of time.

It'd be more accurate to say "I find it overwhelmingly improbable that there is a deity." Why? Several reasons, including:

1. The Problem of Evil.
2. The preposterous claims of holy books and those who purport to represent the deity.
3. The remarkable adequacy of thousands of years of accumulated science to explain formerly "unexplainable" phenomena.
4. The multiplicity of conflicting, mutually exclusive claims about what that deity or deities actually is and what it/they want from us.
5. The logical impossibility of an entity existing outside of universal space-time.
6. Personal experience with religious teachings and practices failing to produce any emotional or experiential response even remotely similar to what faithful people claim has happened to them.