I don’t think too much about being an atheist. For me, it is what it is. When someone asks me what I believe, I tell them, matter-of-factly, that I am an atheist and do not believe in any gods. Note the key word there is believe. It is a verb, which describes an action, in this case, accepting something being true. What does this really say? It says that I don’t know for sure there are no gods, I just don’t believe there are. I don’t think anyone knows for certain whether there is a god or gods and that would make us all…agnostic, wouldn’t it?
Believing something to be true isn’t knowledge that what you believe is, in fact, true. One thing atheists have asked believers of all types is to show us proof of the existence of your god(s). Of course they talk about nature and how, in their view, it would be impossible for there to not be a creator. We, atheists, then respond with how these things could have happened in nature. How about how of all the species that have ever lived on this earth, only around one percent still survive today? That means that nature moves along, doesn’t it? Or does that mean a very busy creator, someone tha is destroying it’s own creation in order to create something new?
What I am discussing here are two separate categories: believing and knowing. We can believe in whatever we want: fairies, flying dragons, hobbits, and even Harry Potter, but we know these are all fictional characters created for us, in some cases, ages ago. We have no proof for any of these though. It is possible that in ancient times, people found dinosaur fossils and that’s where the mythology of dragons came from (I’ve actually heard the from several sources, none with any proof, just guessing based on the fact that these fossils indeed exist and that is is possible that our ancestors may have found them and come to a conclusion on their own, Sounds silly, but mythos, like legends, always start with a particle of truth (reality?) behind them before they fully develop.
The Botton line for atheists versus believers though is that there is no proof that any sort of afterlife exists. When we die, that’s it. Nothing. In fact, we don;t even know we’re dead because, well, we’re dead. Think about that bug you step on: does it have an afterlife? Most people would probably say no (I’d be really surprised to find anyone that believes otherwise, but hey, there probably is someone, somewhere), or how about any animal? That steak you ate last night came from a cow that was raised just for that reason. Is it in “heaven”? Then why would we believe that we’re any different?
We can say we believe something is true or not and we can also say factually whether something is true or otherwise. But those are different categories based on different standards of proof. Believing something is true is based on personal experience, emotion, social influence, and of course what feels comforting whereas knowing something is true or not is based on evidence, logical reasoning, and personal experience that can be repeated. Feeling isn’t involved. When a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? Yes, it does. How do we know? Because there’s been innumerable times when a tree in a forest has fallen when there was someone around and it indeed made a noise. Just because someone isn’t around doesn’t change the facts.
Lots of people have died in hospital and brought back to life minutes later, and only a very small percentage of those report of anything that could be considered an afterlife of any kind. You would think that if there were something beyond this life, that there would be a large number of those reporting the same. That might be considered a level of proof. But there isn’t and we go on, deluding ourselves that something waits for us beyond the gate of this life.
So yes, as an atheist I can say I don’t believe there are any gods. But, like everyone else, I have no way of knowing for sure. I could even say I am 99.999% sure there are no gods. That isn’t 100% and therefore, makes me an agnostic in the category of knowledge, and an atheist as to belief.