Is atheism a belief?

[EgoDeath]

We get a new definition of "atheism" all the time, so it just depends who you ask and what definition they're using.

An atheist is someone who does not believe in god.

The fact that some theists try to use semantics to cloud the waters means nothing. Having a belief in a god or gods is active. NOT having a belief in a god or gods is inactive. It simply isn't there.

Calling oneself an atheist is not equivalent to saying you know there isn't a god. Being an atheist simply means that you, the theist, have proposed there's a god. To date, we have zero evidence to back the proposal. So while what you're proposing might be true, there is not yet enough evidence to decide that it is. It could be true, but it simply hasn't been proven, so a final conclusion is being withheld until evidence for said proposal has been presented.

Atheism is an inactive position.

Let's say, in court, Mark is being charged with murdering Greg. There was enough evidence of Mark being a suspect that he was indicted and brought into court. Maybe there was an eye-witness or something that reported him to the police. But unfortunately, there's no hard evidence that Mark murdered Greg; no gun, no fingerprints, Mark has an alibi, he had no motive to murder Greg, etc. etc. So the case never goes to trial and is dismissed. The court is not saying that Mark didn't murder Greg, that would be an active position on the matter, they're simply saying that there is no evidence, currently, that Mark is the murderer, so, for now, the case is dismissed. If new evidence is presented that changes the circumstances, Mark can be brought up on charges again.

The issue is, the case by theists has never even been brought to court. The atheists haven't even been indicted. You guys haven't even begun the case yet, because there's no evidence to even present a case to the court. So our inactive position is this: When you have some evidence, we can talk about it.