Why Agnostic?

[Ryft]

Just a thought, but do we really need a label?

Yes, in the sense that 'labels' can provoke a person to reflect upon what his beliefs and views are to see where he does or doesn't fit within a given spectrum, and I think anything that encourages self-evaluation is always a good thing.

And no, in the sense that 'labels' can never be precise enough to encapsulate exactly what we believe. (But surely a general understanding is better than nothing.)

The kind of certainty you're talking about there is faith. That's fine for theists, but I don't think faith has any place in atheism—at least not in my atheism. I base my worldview on logic and empiricism; my gut feelings are irrelevant.

No, absolutely not. There is an extraordinarily sharp and significant difference between belief and faith, and what he is talking about is belief. What you have alluded to in your post here is a colloquialism that's every bit as erroneous as it is common. He is referring to belief, whereas faith includes, but is different from, "belief that" (Lt. assensus); it also includes the properties notitia ("knowledge of") and fiducia ("trust in"). As Gregory Koukl puts the matter, "This is a critical distinction in what we're talking about ... You can watch a guy push a wheelbarrow across a tightrope across Niagra Falls a hundred times. You have knowledge that he's capable of doing it. You assent to the fact that he can do that. But you don't exercise faith in his capability until you get into the wheelbarrow." This is a horribly loose analogy of faith but it works to underscore the difference between belief and faith.

Belief and faith are two very different things, and fr0d0 was referring to belief only. And he was promoting the idea—if I have understood him rightly—that the presuppositions which undergird theistic beliefs are no less 'certain' than the presuppositions which undergird atheistic beliefs.