As I understand it, theism is about having belief, and gnosticism is about having knowledge. You could call it splitting hairs in belief vs knowledge.
But the reverse doesn't seem to be true for atheism and agnosticism. Atheism maintains the belief but reverses its direction - now a belief that something exists becomes a belief that it does not. Agnosticism reverses the knowledge, saying that you don't know, rather than you do.
Therefore, I've always been more comfortable with 'agnostic' than 'atheist', as someone who doesn't believe but who doesn't outright deny the possibility. Yes, by the definition that I understand, I am also an atheist. The problem being that common usage of the term is to describe someone who outright denies the existence of God.

So, I'm going for the giant generalization: Atheists are "certain" that there is no god, that Jesus never existed, and that there can be no other options. For evidence,

Agnostics aren't certain. They don't see evidence, but that doesn't mean they aren't willing to change their ideas should evidence show up. For evidence,

Gnostics, on the other hand, claim that they have "special" awareness that only they can see. They call it enlightenment, we call it conspiratorial thinking.

I thought agnostic was a made up word first used by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley to mean the oppostie of gnostic.

I’m a nontheist.

I still try to adhere to the agnostic atheist thing yet also concur with this quote from Mark Twain: "If there is a God, he is a malign thug."

Yeah, this is how I define it too. I find it very useful for many reasons, one of which you outlined. People, especially theists, seem to take atheism as "I know there is no God". That isn't my position at all. It's more like leprechauns. I don't believe they exist, but I could be compelled otherwise.

Seems pretty clear to me. One term is about knowledge and the other is about belief. You are simply saying that you don't know if there is a god but you don't believe there is. No problem.

Agnostic means that you are ignorant of the existence, or lack thereof, of a higher plane/power. It is "not knowing".

Are the people who take offence in this forum? I hope not. When pressed, I describe myself as an agnostic DE FACTO atheist. That is, I don't believe there's a god, but then I don't believe anything else, either. I don't think a hard atheist, that is, one who is convinced that there is no god, could also be agnostic.

So much terminology-I say freethinker and people just go huh? Whatever you're comfortable with is ok here.

As far as I am concerned, if their is no evidence for somethings existence, it does not exist.

what objections have you encountered?

well you see, by your own definition "Agnostic atheist" means you do not have knowledge that there is no god yet you don't believe there is one. This suggest you have no evidence that there is no god yet you believe that there is no god.

Orthodox Agnostics will claim you cannot believe or not believe in anything. The firebrand atheists will burn you at the stake for denying all the evidence that proves that there is no god.

you just can't win huh? xD

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