Why do atheists get singled out like this?

[downbeatplumb]

in their world you HAVE to believe in something, even if its not what they believe. But to not believe.....Just does not compute with them for some reason. Hence the fear.

To not believe in one thing is fine, but to posit the idea of not believing anything doesn't compute, because everybody believes in something. They believe in a world where deity is included, and you believe in a world where deity is not included.

Beliefs are quite high up the level of what we take to be true.
For example I believe that there are no elephants in my fridge, I can back up this belief with photographs if needed.

But when it comes to religious stuff I prefer to use the phrase 'the evidence has led me to conclude' rather than 'belief' because beliefs can be based on passing whims or fancies.

Some people believe that there is life on other planets and I would say this is a strong statement.

I think it is likely that there is life on other planets elsewhere in the universe.

I think this is a reasonable assumption because there is life on this planet.

I don't however 'believe' that there is life on other planets because it has yet to be proven.

I have a position that leans towards there being life but it is not belief.

I have a similar feeling about theism. The universe looks exactly how a godless universe would look. The things that were atributed to god have either been proved to have a materialistic mechanism or a materialistic mechanism is a viable alternative (abiogenesis is what I'm thinking of here).

Frodo is fond of pointing out that there can be no evidence one way or the other where it comes to gods.

This view I dont entirely conform to, the evidence leads me to the conclusion that it is overwhelmingly unlikely that there is a god or gods.

Does that count as a belief?

It seems that to a theistic mind it must because they cannot concieve of no belief.

It rocks their world.