Atheist or Agnostic?

[FatAndFaithless]

In reply to that, Smith can be asked whether he also lacks the belief that God does not exist. If the answer is yes, then Smith is not an atheist at all but an agnostic:

Oh for fucks sake not this again.

Gnosticism and theism address two separate questions. They are not mutually exclusive and your attempt to shove "atheists" into an assertive claim position is both dishonest and obvious.

An agnostic does not claim to know (or might say it's impossible to know), but an agnostic can be a theist or an atheist, depending on what they believe or don't believe. This shit is so simple.

This isn't some spectrum like: theist <----> agnostic <---> atheist. Agnostic isn't some neutral middle ground.

It's a response to a single question: Do you hold a belief in a god or gods? Not a question about knowledge, or truth, or reality. Just a single, personal question. Do you believe a god or gods exist? If you do hold the belief that a god exists, you're a theist (STILL hasn't said anything about truth or knowledge), and if you don't hold a belief in a god, you are an atheist (again, no claims about truth or knowledge there either).