Is atheism a belief?

[Alan V]

Some atheists believe there is no god, some atheists just don’t believe in any gods. I don’t think atheism is a belief. But I don’t really care if other people say it is. I don’t really care if it’s a belief just like I don’t care if there’s a god.

The only thing all atheists have in common is a lack of belief in any God or gods.  Atheists often define atheism by this more inclusive definition.

Further, atheism is only an answer to that one question, "Do you believe there is any God or gods?"  "No, I'm an atheist."

Atheism is similar to theism in that sense, because theism in its simplest form is a belief in some God or gods.  Theism only becomes Protestantism or Catholicism or Islam when you add a lot more to it.

However, theism also has a second definition which is narrower: "belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures."  (Google)  Atheism has a similar secondary definition, that atheism is the knowledge claim that there is no God or gods.  Just as the secondary definition of theism excludes some theists of the primary definition, the secondary definition of atheism excludes some atheists as well, perhaps the majority.  So you can't say that having several somewhat confusing definitions for atheism is a fault of atheists themselves.  That's just the way language works.

As an atheist, I am also an emergent materialist, but many atheists are reductionists instead, and not all are even materialists.  I believe in free will and objective morality, and many atheists do not.  You can add and subtract a lot from atheism, because atheism is not a worldview like the various forms of Christianity, for instance.  It is just one aspect of a worldview.

So if people argue against atheism, as many Christians like to do, they have to keep this in mind.  They can't indict atheism or atheists for whatever ideas certain particular atheists believe.  Such ideas track to different causes other than that basic lack of belief in any God or gods.