Degrees of (dis)belief? By its nature, belief is binary. You either believe or you don't believe in a particular truth proposition. There are degrees of certainty and confidence in a knowledge position, but a belief position is an expression of the preponderance of evidence.
Agnosticism is the notion that there is no defensible truth claim for OR against the existence of god (due to invisible beings and realms being inherently non-falsifiable). Atheism is the notion that there is no defensible reason to afford belief to the existnce of god (due to the lack of substantiating evidence to support such a belief). They influence each other but vary independently.
It seems that agnostics and atheists are defind by the majority, being thiest, and not by ourselves. As a result we often fall in line to their theology. This is why I am so adamant that we use the term atheist in order to normalize it so that we can define it.
As atheist we simply do not believe, it is like a light switch, you either belive or you don't.
Agnostics may be questioning what or who god is. This is good as they are using reason to question thier beliefs. They may belief in many things. My mother believes we were planted by space aliens(It will take more time to explain evolution to her, and that its real). With agnostics there is going to be many degrees of belief. This is to be expected. It is our job as athiest to simply help them use reason so that they can sort it out on their own.
Well I don't think you're going to get any argument from your friends above.