Is atheism a belief?

[The Grand Nudger]

Personally, I'm convinced that adults states of belief in x y or z can be and are as commonly a-rational as any kindergartners.  God beliefs...."natural atheism"....and this very thread.... are all wonderful examples of that.

SAd hoc rationalizations are not reasons in anything other than a low colloquial sense.  We can say that the man skullfucked his neighbor because a neon flashing toucan told him to - that's the reason he did it, without implying (or even attempting to imply) that this is an example of reason at work.

So let's say a person has very superstitious feelings of the category which others might call "superstitious"-- maybe, because they are very strongly ingrained from childhood.  So whenever they walk into a church they "feel there's something out there, though they don't really believe the Bible stories"  But intellectually, they'll agree with you that no god exists under any rational description they've ever heard.  Should they be said to believe, or not?

B-mine, and there's the answer to that question.  I feel the sense of the numinous on a near constant basis, myself.

I'd say a person in conflict can definitely be unable to resolve the complexities of their brain function down to a binary answer-- i.e. they cannot be said to really understand whether they hold a belief or not.

Then they are telling us, as I mentioned in the very beginning... and as I mention every time I join this discussion...that they don't know the contents of their own beliefs. What month? Tuesday.

If they can't tell you that they have a positive belief in gods...that's pretty demonstrative. As demonstrative as telling you that they have an active disbelief. The answer is no. You could use "not that I'm aware of" in place of that, but with respect to the difference between atheism and theism that's atheism.