For years, I described myself as Agnostic, though I don't believe in an invisible deity or god. Agnostic means I am unsure if there is a god or not. I thought it was softer, more palatable.

Through online dating, two Christian men met to try to convert me.

"Martin Luther said there are no atheists," one man said triumphantly, as if that solved the issue.

"I don't CARE what a Catholic monk said over 400 years ago!" I retorted and laughed. "I don't want to argue with you. I'm leaving."

So, I switched to called myself an Atheist. To me, Atheist is more hard-nosed, not open to argument. However, idiots still try to convert me. Good luck with that.

That is a bit misleading, gnosticism, as I understand it, is simply a journey to find "truth", and that experience is as unique as each individual that pursues it, and we never really find the answers, but we keep asking the questions, and that in my opinion is how it should be.

In my questioning, I have seen no evidence that any gods exist, so that is how I identify, if at some point I am proven wrong, I will accept that outcome. One thing that I am 100% certain of is that all of the accepted concepts of God are bullsh*t.

BTW, welcome, I'm pretty new to this site too.

That little chart let me down

There's no spot for a "doesn't know if there is a god/entity or not."

I STRONGLY SUSPECT there are no gods, but I can't assert that with certainty...

The chart is interesting. I have always stated that I am an atheist: I do not believe that a god exists. I can believe this to be true, but in absence of proof one way or another, my believe is all that I can state.

Religious people love to misdefine the word "Atheist" as an insistence that there is no god because then their opponents' position is as weak as their own. They want the debate to be "we say there IS a god and you say there ISN'T", when the real debate is "you say there is a god and we say you can't prove it. The first argument is a tie and the second one we win.

LOL : not to be confused with absolute possibility", made me chuckle

I think this might be the biggest misnomer out there, the statement that ‘atheist completely 100% believe that there could never be a god ‘; it may have spawned from the church to try to divide people that are not of faith. Theists are faith based or no proof, atheists are evidence based as in the 'A' opposite of theists; so if jesus came back and preformed a bunch of mind bending provable things, they would believe in him based from the evidence and still be atheists. The picture helps me out with this one. Its just how i see it.

Very interesting. Finally I get it, I think. To say you believe or do not believe something is just a statement about yourself, and requires no proof or even an explanation. If you make a bald-faced statement, presented as absolute fact, then that is something else again. If however you are a Canadian you can add “aye” at the end, thereby turning the assertion into a question and letting you off the hook.

As for me, I learn that I am an agnostic theist, which means I have no “burden of proof”. I would have no burden anyway though because I only claim to know at the 93.47% confidence level.

1. Ask yourself "Do I believe in a god or gods?"
   • If your answer is anything other than "Yes!", Congratulations, you're an atheist!
2. Ask yourself "Am I confident in my answer?"
   • If your answer is "Yes", add gnostic. If your answer is "No" add agnostic.

I can't fit myself in any of these squares.... the story of my life.

Words mean things. It drives me crazy too how people misuse the terms.

This is a great chart! Thank you for sharing.

I find these charts irritating, because they usually have no place for me.

I'm agnostic. I'm not sure if there is a god in the universe or not. I have no percentage.

Many will benefit from this knowledge, thank you for sharing!