Is atheism a belief?

[EgoDeath]

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you might want to look up hard atheism.

My apologies, I misread you here.

Hard atheism is a specific term with a specific meaning.  Hard atheism is (atheos + ism), i.e. the assertion that God does not exist.  Now, you could be agnostic on that assertion, or gnostic.

As for soft atheism-- if it's not a belief, then you can't really be gnostic or agnostic about it-- that would mean you do know or don't know whether you lack a belief, which would be a pretty convoluted position to take.

I'm not taking a position on the merits of different flavors of atheism, but the terms are there, and they have definite meanings.  Try here maybe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_a...ve_atheism

Also, for a look at closely related terms:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitheism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignosticism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontheism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-theism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism

It strikes me that many here may be well described as apatheists.

Regardless of how many definitions you throw out or how you try to argue the semantics, atheism = an absence of a belief in deities. That definition stands. Where any individual atheist chooses to go from there is up to them, but atheism is an absence of belief. If someone chooses to identify as as a gnostic atheist, that's up to them. If they choose to identify as a gnostic theist, that's also up to them.

You seem to think that arguing semantics is going to get you what you want, but unfortunately, atheism is what is is, an absence of a belief in deities.

For someone who believes in god, they hold a belief in a deity. For me, that belief isn't there. It's honestly very simple.

Nope. "Agnostic" is a better descriptor for me, tyvm.

Then you are either an agnostic atheist or an agnostic theist.