I’m what most people would refer to as a Dictionary Atheist. I don’t believe in the existence of any god(s) and that’s about it. Although being an atheist is a part of me, I really don’t consider atheism a major influence in my life at all. As I wrote several weeks ago atheism is a conclusion that I came to over time. That conclusion was based on personal experience, as many other atheists have said.
I don’t wake up in the morning, or go to sleep at night with atheism on my mind. It’s a part of my life, but it’s not an overriding principle above everything else.
Unlike believers, I don’t impose myself on others with my non-belief. In fact, maybe only half the people I know, know I am an atheist. The subject just doesn’t come up and the only reason some do know I’m an atheist is that at some point in a conversation, belief did enter into the discourse.
In some circles we’re viewed no differently than any other religion. That’s because there are vocal atheists that want to conflate their atheism with their personal activism that has nothing to do with being an atheist. I reject that view. I honestly think it’s one reason that atheists are viewed so poorly. It’s okay to have political opinions, or social justice views, but those have nothing to do with being an atheist. If someone became an atheist because of one or both of the above, they’re not really an atheist in my opinion. They’re an activist using atheism to further their political/social construct.
Being an atheist should have nothing to do with who we are as a person, overall. I’m not a happy atheist, nor an angry atheist, if any label may be applied to me, it would be content atheist. That’s because I’m perfectly content as to who I am as a person. Atheism just happens to be one part of that person. It doesn’t overwhelm me, changing who I am.
Conservative Skeptic 
I’m an atheist who knows the pitfalls in the Bible. The very first of which is in Genesis and it goes on from there. Who were those people east of Eden in the land of Nod?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Atheism refutes more than Judeo-Christianity and the bible.
LikeLike
Well of course.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was only reacting to your bible comment. So many, Dawkins included, are fixated more on A-Christian (and A-Muslim) than A-Theist. It get annoying after a while. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Some thoughts which so exactly mirror mine, but do so far more elegantly than I could, and which I shamelessly plagiarize;
Skepticism is my nature.
Free thinking is my methodology.
Agnosticism is my conclusion.
Atheism is my opinion.
Humanitarianism is my motivation.
‘Faith’ is what adults call ‘pretending.’
LikeLike
While I agree in part with your conclusion, I have trouble with your apparent criticism of activists, or what I might call militant atheists. When people push back against religious (under god in pledge, prayer in school, in god we trust on money, taxes, etc.) theocracy, that does not grant you accuracy with “they’re not really an atheist in my opinion.” If they do not believe in god, they really are atheists, regardless of what you think. Check the title of your own post, which is correct.
LikeLike
I’m perfectly okay with people attempting to persuade others to adopt humanism and the social justice values that often accompany it, but I agree that this has nothing to do with atheism. I honestly think the atheism+ stuff would have been far more successful if they had labeled it humanism and been able to refrain from demonizing those who didn’t embrace it. I am an atheist who happens to think that the pursuit of social justice is often a good thing, but I’m not going to conflate the two.
LikeLike
I am an igtheist insomuch as I think the whole question is nonsensical and would not otherwise even care. However—and this is where the vocal atheism comes into play—, many laws, regulation, and mores are based on the premise of a god, gods, some universal force, or whatever. And some of these interfere with what otherwise would be my liberty, if only hypothetically. For example, abortion, capital punishment, prostitution, and pornography laws all derive from some religious source.
Get rid of this infusion of corruption, and I’ll go back to being an igtheist because it just won’t much matter.
LikeLike