[Serious] Atheist Dogma

[Mr.wizard]

Merriam Webster also lists non-belief, unbelief, and disbelief as synonyms. 

Right, that's what I said.

Mitchell portrays atheism as knowing there are know gods, that's a misrepresentation of atheism. He can use Atheism to mean bananas for all I care but he is misrepresenting the concept.

He uses it in the way that some people use it. You use it a different way. You don't want him to use it that way. 

When you are emperor you can put him in jail.

Lack of belief in something does not require belief in something else. 

In many cases I'm sure that's true.

When we hear and evaluate claims, however, we do so based on criteria of judgment. Thinking people who reject claims have reasons.

It may be that lots of people reject claims based purely on prejudice or force of habit. That's not something to be proud of, and I hope that this is not the case with most atheists. 

Rejecting the claim that God made the stars requires, for thinking people, a number of things we hold to be true. These include, but are not limited to:

~ What the word "God" means.
~ What stars are.
~ How stars are generally thought to be formed. 

If you claim there is no evidence for such a position, then you already have beliefs about what constitutes evidence.

If you reject the claim without having any of those things in your mind then I think you're just allowing it to bounce off your skull for no reason. It's better to have reasons.

Yes rejecting the theistic claim could be for a number of reasons, but I don't see why that would be inconsistent with a lack of belief in a god or gods.