I have no more belief in a deity than in the Loch Ness monster or the tooth fairy or big foot, until sufficient evidence is shown I have no reason to believe or disbelieve, but after 6000 years or so one would expect some sort of evidence to exist, where as there is none (at least to my knowledge)

I do not "believe." It is not one of my functions. There simply is no god. Anything that would claim to be a "god" - omnipotent and omniscient - would have to be under an eternity of scrutiny, question, and doubt; one absolute for another. Anything less than omni-whatever may very well be an alien or being from a contingent universe with better gear than me. "God" is essentially a word we came up with to describe beings with more power than us or power over us (namely, as a species). It's really just a semantics issue. There was another thread similar to this one. The answers are much the same. And the distinction between "believe" and "worship" is also noteworthy. If some guy came from the sky and said, "I'm a god." I would say, "Define yo terms, provide evidence, and then, what the fuck do you want?"

A. There isn't enough evidence to suggest that there is a deity running things.

B. I refuse to believe in any deity that lets the kind of injustice and inequality that goes on in the world every day.

I think this question ties back to the human construct of "god". "God" is a word that is used to control and give power to a supernatural entity. People interpret different emotional states, senses, even physical forces as "god". Its a voyeuristic construct than looms over conscious beings to create an insecurity that leads to behavioral intervention. It absolves people of their responsibility in their decisions and offers "forgiveness" when they harm other human beings. I was raised in a strict religious group, often referred to as a cult by southern baptists and other christians born many times over, in the state of Utah. I was immersed in religious ideals and pressed to the point of fear when bathing or changing clothing as a child... I held shame for being human as child, as I believe most children do in religious households. There are definitely forces that we as humans cannot explain, there are worlds beyond our understanding and we are a miniature dot on the scope of infinity... whether it be inter-species or inter-personal, an energy is there that we cannot explain... but I believe it is natural and scientific.. it makes no sense why it would be governed by some "godlike" entity. Throughout our human history and currently throughout the earth, the "god" we interpret to answer these questions is very different and is based on our geographical histories. Basic energy theory - high energy theory, string theory, quantum theory and gravity models, and the etcentera all help to define many of the phenomena that we as humans experince as far as physical phenomena... I firmly believe that in our lifetime we will better understand the human "soul" from a physical/energy perspective and there are forces that impress upon us for emotional result, as well as continue from our "soul" prior to and after life... "god" is the theory to help define these phenomena. I "think" it is something else - I also "believe" it is something else, therefore agreeing that I am an atheist - without god. It should not be assumed that an atheist lacks belief - many people try and remove this word from the atheists vocabulary. Atheists are human and no human actually knows anything beyond their experience... and everyone sees the world through a very different perspective and set of eyes. We are fortunate beings to be conscious and critical and to be able to understand the concept of belief... I can say I am a firm believer that there is no "god" as I think it is a product of human imagination and desire for control.

I can say that there is absolutely NO evidence that there is a God. Only based on superstition and a need to explain the unexplainable without doing the work to find out one way or the other. Science is hard and requires people with the most serious minds and intellect. Religion is easy. Just believe everything the Clergy tells you.

It is not my responsibility to prove the non existence of God. It is their responsibility to prove that he does exist. One of my requirements in doing this is that they can't use the Bible as proof.

First we should define some terms. Atheist does not necessarily believe in the non-existence of a deity or a god[s]. Most atheists are what lay people call agnostics. Let's try it like this for defining terms:
Hard Atheist- Believes no god or gods exist

Soft Atheist- Does not accept that the evidence for the existence of a god or gods is sufficient to draw a reasonable conclusion in favor of existence.

Agnostic- Does not accept that there is enough evidence for OR against the existence of a deity.

The subtle difference is that for most Agnostics, the question of the existence of deities is still on the table for further scrutiny, unlike a Soft Atheist who is typically apathetic. Compare those to a Hard Atheist who has somehow proven the existence of a negative.

These are vast generalizations and need to be taken with a huge pinch of salt and an entire peck of pickled peepers. But to answer your original question, I, and probably most atheists do not believe in the non-existence of a deity, but are unsatisfied with the evidence, or lack thereof.

Therefore, no belief is needed to make the statement that I would to most theists- "Prove it".

I became an atheist very slowly on my own with no role models, just because I kept encountering things about religion that didn't make sense. But years later I learned about a website that exhaustively delves into this question and demonstrates in many different ways why it stands to reason that there is no god (at least not in the way that he is characterized in mainstream Christianity). Go check it out: [whywontgodhealamputees.com]

fantasy

What makes people believe there is a god? An old book that everyone knows has been changed, adapted, voted on and rewritten by slick con men and hucksters? Brainwashed parents shoving the beliefs down their children's throats before they are able to reason? Fear of death? The unholy arrogance of small minds that want to believe they are special and above other animals in the grand scheme of things?

Lack of evidence. Show me concrete proof and I will change my opinion.

Im as comfortable with it as any other word description.

It is beyond apparent that the universe is indifferent (e.g. natural disasters, famines, genocides, etc). Furthermore, the notion of a personal god, that interacts with people, loves them as a parent does their children, has plans for their lives, "lives in their hearts" etc. is absolutely absurd. Evangelical christians are blinded by their own emotional keyboards which they themselves play in wanting to believe they are encountering the supernatural. The fact is it is nothing more than their mind, will, and emotions controlling the psychological marionette of what they delude themselves into believing is their spiritual life. By this they bend themselves in the direction of indoctrination and thus waste their lives on insanity...

There isn't any evidence that one exists. In the few cases where believers define the qualities of their god(s) that can be tested, their god(s) fail the test, eg. omnipotence and omniscience are mutually exclusive. You would also expect to see different things happen in a universe with an interacting deity than one without one, eg. believers spared in disasters, prayers answered, etc., so in this case, absence of evidence is evidence of absence.

Zero evidence. What makes you believe one or some might?

I believe in a universal force. It cannot be seen or touched, but it is felt by everyone and has governed the lives of every creature that has ever lived on the Earth.

And I can demonstrate it.

(Exercise). Find a small, lightweight not-fragile object. A pencil or a paperclip will do.

Hold it a few inches above a solid surface, say, the nearest tabletop.

Now let it go. (EndEx).

Gravity.

I know, I know, it's just a theory. But there are very few agnostics when it comes to Gravity, and no-one steps off high buildings for fun.

It affects everyone in just the same way, even astronauts in free fall in orbit - they are basically continuously falling towards the Earth, but missing it - or on other bodies such as the Moon and Mars (same maths, but less Mass).

If there really was a universal creator He / She / They / It would be every bit as eternal, pervasive and undeniable as Gravity.

Atheism would be as impossible as levitation, or at the very least every bit as difficult.

The major religions all started at a particular place at a particular time, and usually with a particular individual. Cults like that spring up all the time. Most of them wither and die off once their founder leaves the stage... but a few snowball, through historical accident and opportunity.

Those religions spread across the world is governed by war, conquest, migration and colonisation, trade and missionary activity. Physical, human stuff, not on the wings of angels or whatever.

Basically, Men create Gods in their own image. Religion fills a need in the Human psyche, but that says more about us as thinking mortal apes than it does about external reality.

Best answer, of course, there is simply no proof. How anyone could possible accept the Bible as proof is beyond comprehension to me, yet there are people who believe the Bible is indeed an infallible source of truth straight from the Creator. I don't know how or why we are here, but I acknowledge clearly there is (or was at sometime) something far greater than mankind that set the wheels in motion that has allowed Earth to provide life to humans and other species of. But whatever that source is -- it clearly is not the God of the Bible.

My position is not that no gods exist. My position is that the claim of Gods existence should be rejected until such time as there is evidemce to support the claim.

Lack of evidence.

Atheism covers broad ground, because (as others have pointed out) it's a lack of belief in a God or gods but that also covers those who actively disbelieve in a God or gods. I consider myself an agnostic atheist when it comes to general claims of God/gods, and a strong atheist when it comes to many specific claims. For instance, if you study the Canaanite and Sumerian religions you'll see their direct influence on ancient Hebrew religion and the transition from the regional pantheon to tribal monotheism, narrowing the field down to Yahweh (though reading through the Old Testament, if you have a good translation that doesn't errantly conflate names, you'll see references to El and Elohim, among other god names). So, with respect to Yahweh (and, by linear association, Jesus/Yeshua), I'm a strong atheist. It isn't limited to Yahweh/Allah, though, because virtually any hard claim about God/gods in terms of characteristics generally has logical inconsistencies (e.g., "God is all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful" is self-contradictory when trying to factor in evil in the world). Nebulous or ill-defined concepts of God or gods on the other hand,, e.g., "God is love" or "God is the universal energy that connects all living things," are just sort of meaningless tropes and platitudes and are nothing I consider worth thinking about one way or another.

I feel like use of language is really important for something like this because I don't so much believe there is no god, but rather don't believe one exists. I see myself as someone looking for what's true. After spending a lot of time involved with Christianity, I came across atheists online and they spoke a lot of sense to me. Over time I continued to hear the same arguments from religious people and it more or less solidified my stance, not in a sense where I'm unwilling to change my position given the evidence for the claim, but that I find it highly unlikely the evidence I seek for that claim will ever be presented. Nobody will know for sure, I just use Occam's razor to justify my stance.

The absolute lack of proof.

If there is a deity of any kind resposible for the creation of humans and the universe, its pretty obvious that he, she, it or they do not possess anything resembling a human set of values. Why would a diety who supposedly loves the human race, create a world in which parasites exist that eat children's eyeballs? That's only one of my beefs.

I believe that no God exists because of the Bible with all of its absurdities and condemnations to death of so many people : babies (1st born of Egypt); the Flood (all life on earth except a few) ; cities burned to the ground; LGBTQ persons; etc.

Think of all the things you would do if you were God. Would you stop child abuse? Would you cure cancer?
Then I realized that I used to believe in a deity who did none of these things.