Born into a household that was atheist, so I didn't have to lose religion like many. Religion and faith just never stuck either.

I believe that no deity exists for the exact same reason that you believe that Santa Claus does not exist.

So... what makes you believe that Santa Claus does not exist?

I don't feel any need for a label or a definition of my lack of belief. It really is like Santa Claus. As a child the fairy tale made me happy, made me marvel, gave me something to hope for and look forward too. I was blissfully ignorant and content, and trusted what my parents told me. Occasionally the myth was used to control my behavior. Be a good girl, Santa Claus is watching! But it was expected that I would outgrow the belief, that I would piece together the impossibilities and become an adult who did not believe in Santa. Essentially, that is how my religious belief evaporated. In college, there were fewer people to reinforce the need for religion, more facts and knowledge to explain the world...poof! And to be honest, sometimes I miss the childhood feeling of wonder and comfort. But now it would be delusional to try to recapture the belief.

Wrong terminology. Belief is accepting on faith something that cannot be proven. Since no one has been able to prove that a god exists atheist do not believe in god. It is not a matter of believing no god exists but simply saying "show me the proof".

If you cannot measure it, it does not exist. You would be right to think that is a little simplistic, because obviously there are things that exist that are measurable and we just do not know how to measure them yet. There are also things that we can measure now that we did not know how to measure 100 years ago. However, the phrase is still a solid rule of thumb when trying to determine the difference between reality, perception, and belief. The key point is that simply believing in something does not make it real. Nor does the majority of people agreeing that something is true make it so. For a thing to be true and / or real there must be observable, repeatable, and measurable data. Without that... it is just an idea you had.

I keep finding this post popping up- You aren't making any sense to me at all.

Non belief is non belief so; not interesting - not a subject for comment - not anything - The clue is in the 'non'

I don't think what you think - for me 'no god' is 'no god' end of don't care if you call me atheist agnostic too late for my dinner I don't have a god - end of.

Deja vous all over again. This comes up seemingly every day.

You ask as if the default position is there must be or is a god.

Since the beginning of time, what ever happens happens. What anyone believes is not reflected on what happens and never has been. If anyone can think of a provable example, I'm all ears. I can't even relate to what it means to believe in a god. So to speak of whether there is or isn't has no meaning or relevance.

    Same here. You're not going to get proof either way, because no one really knows. On the other hand; can a supercomputer with AI ever become aware of itself and who it depends on for its existence? Can a two dimensional object ever observe a three dimensional object? Can a three dim object observe a four?  Thus I'm agnostic; I don't know, don't pretend to know, and not even sure I want to know.  if there is a maker that I'm unaware of or a dimension that I cannot see and there is no obvious micromanagement then I say......What difference, at this point, does  it  make ?

Life itself .

There is no evidence either way, so therefore ideas of gods are simply made up. They keep making up more all the time and I've seen great changes in my lifetime. They have reason to fear because the Internet is going to lead to the death of god. Apologists know this and they are making up false sites. OK, there is still no evidence.

My question at a early age was "which one",? Which church? From a very small town, at least five differant churches...I asked why, if there was only one god, how come so many differant churches. When I got older, found out different people had different gods, and near as I could tell they were all jealous, vicious, and murderous. Then one day I read that to be a good god follower, you had to have "faith". Near as I could find out that meant tossing out rational thought, and believing in something without any basis. I just never had enough imagination. Atheism is simple as occams razor.

From the perspective of the believer that realizes that theism doesn't make sense, agnosticism makes sense. If I've been told that there is a god, it makes sense that I should disprove it.

But if I take a more rational stance that starts from nothing and someone makes a claim that there is a god, that is a claim that needs evidence. A book cannot prove that something exists just because it says so. If that were true there are fairies, unicorns, Harry Potter and Middle Earth is a place. Empirical evidence is needed.

An atheist does not have to deny that no gods could ever exist. They can simply say that they are certain that no god exists because there is no proof. Zero. Nada. Zip. And they are confident there never will be any proof.

What makes me not believe in a literal deity isn’t the absence of evidence to support it; it’s the presence of evidence that adequately explains why we are so nearly universally tempted to believe in spite of that absence. The evidence is well-presented and studies
cited in biologist John Wathey’s
“The Illusion of God's Presence: The Biological Origins of Spiritual Longing”

[amazon.com]

All religions have a creation story. Evolution makes a nonsence of creation. Deities existence is built on the premise that these creation stories are true.

As for the higher power. Well maybe one day science will be able to explain that to.

To be really honest here, I can't believe that any god of any kind or any spirit of any kind of higher or lower power could be so damn dumb, blind, sadistic, rotten, weak , ineffective that it would allow child rape and murders, mass extermination of humans, of all life, including their pets, gassed and burnt to ashes, would allow the intolerable pain of torture during the wars of the prisoners, unspeakable acts of nightmare terror. Any god if it did exist is not one I'd surely worship that's a for sure. If there is something running the show here on Earth, it is one sick s o b , twisted and insane. I can't believe that anything so evil exists except in the minds of men. Evil and good exist only in the minds of mankind.

The concept of their being a god, or gods, seems ridiculous to me. i can't entertain a "maybe" about it; it's like reserving judgment on whether or not the tooth fairy exists, even after you've seen your mom sneak a quarter under your pillow (is that still the going rate?) the line between not believing in something and believing in the absence of something is slim, and sometimes (not always) just semantic (not to knock semantics). i don't go around trying to convince everyone there are no gods, but i don't go around wondering either. i think that makes me an atheist. to me, an agnostic feels the verdict is still out. i just do not feel that doubt.

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okay, not trying to be funny, but you said you think atheism is based more on belief than evidence, then went on to state that you think much evidence indicates there is no god. can you reconcile that contradiction for me?

Well the modern sense of an omnipotenet deity existing is impossible to boot

There is no evidence that supports the existence of a deity or deities. Every piece of evidence that has been presented has been derived from ancient writings from Ignorant nomads.

The question is a poor question. I am an atheist and do not believe no deity exists. I just have a lack of belief in gods but this does not mean I presume no deity exists. It is possible a deity exists.

I stopped believing because of the ridiculousness of the claims by the bible. Simple as that. Commenting on anything else is really just extracurricular activity.

It is about probability.

We have no evidence for any supernatural entity, place or event. Zero. Absence of evidence does not prove a negative, but in the case of something that claims to be this pervasive, constant and "omni", we can make a safe conclusion that the claim of a god is very unlikely.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" was a phrase made popular by Carl Sagan. The existence of gods is an outrageous claim, pervasive as it is. Yet the evidence to support this claim is not provided. In cases such as the bible, koran, torah, book of mormon and the deuterocanonical it is easy to conclude that the god described within is false. The statement that no god exists is much more broad.

Quantum theory implies that I can jump through a wall. Mind you that it is possible, but extremely unlikely. I do not try to jump through walls when I am in a hurry because I am confident enough that it will fail that I don't live my life on the off chance that it might work. I claim to be an atheist, not because I claim a 0% chance of god, but because the chance is so small that the effort of belief would almost certainly be a waste of time.

I have never seen anything which hints a god exists. I've never heard of evidence proving a god exists. I believe there are no gods, 99.9% sure. Would a hardline atheist still deny the existence of a god if such a thing were proven? I reserve that . 01% for accepting the existence, via the scientific method, because I'm droning on and lost interest to make any more words about this

atheism is based on not believing people about their God

I am an atheist because when I make a decision I consult the facts. The fact is the theists can't support their claims, making gods a non-issue.

It isn't a 50/50 chance things exists just because SOMEONE claims it does.
If a man tells me the flying spaghetti monster is real, based on no evidence at all, I have no reason to believe what he says is true. It makes no sense to me to be "agnostic" about the possibility that there is a flying spaghetti monster. No more than being "agnostic" about healing chrystals, alchemy, flat earth or the theory that reading makes the womb shrink on women.