A Believer's Thoughts on Faith

[TheJefe817]

i'll really need to know more about what members here believe and why to answer this.  i'm starting to wonder if i know exactly what atheism is, so a definition (in one's own words) would also be helpful.

I think you'll get as many different answers as you would with "christian".  For me personally, I generally use the word "skeptic", as 1) this is all sort of new to me and 2) the term "atheist" in general society tends to bring exactly the sort of assumption you put forth of "following" something.  I lost belief in christianity because, after finally really examining it for myself, I found zero evidence for it textually, theologically, logically, or any-other-ly.  I am therefore a skeptic (atheist if you prefer) about it the same way I'm a skeptic about ghosts, fairies and unicorns.  There's nothing to follow.  It's an absence of following, with nothing to prove.