Just tell folks you're a realist and smile.....that's what I do.

Atheist is the accurate term for what I am, but I hate it when people confuse atheists with antitheists. I respect all beliefs and wish that in turn, my own will be respected. I'm always willing to admit I could be wrong (though my beliefs are strong).

It's because we put a lot of weight, culturally, into religion. As well, most people are to some degree religious, so we're the minority.

In the same way, most people have sex, so we have a word for virgins.

Fine.

I am pretty comfortable calling myself an Athiest, it is what I am!

To me "atheist" is like a warm soft 800 thread count pillow filled with downy rationality.

Completely

Very

It's just a descriptor, though it does have certain negative connotations in certain circles. I just don't care; I'm very comfortable being known as an atheist. If anyone takes it the wrong way, I know it's only because they're ignorant, and it doesn't really bother me. Maybe if I had personal acquaintances who would take offense, I'd care more.

Not too comfortable simply because it elicits a negative reaction from people.. That's why I call myself an agnostic because it is more socially acceptable. Also, I figure if there really is a God and I end up having a judgment day, then I can always say to him/her "Well, I never said I didn't believe in you." So saying I'm an agnostic instead of an atheist is a way of hedging my bet. LOL

Use it only as an adjective and avoid the budding orthodoxies.

A rose by any other name
would smell just like an atheist

I'm actually agnostic, but it's still a good point.

I don't usually mention my being agnostic, or even think about it, and if some expat Christian starts preaching to me, I quickly distance myself from them. My friends here in Thailand are mostly Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the Europeans are mostly happily heathen.

I love it. The religous have a problem with the word not me.

I am ok with it, but use strong Agnostic most the time.If that confuses them than I give them my Dawkins Scale number and tell them to look it up.

Perfectly OK with the term.

Perfectly content being an atheist. I have failed to believe in so many different gods so far. The next one invented will be just as unbelievable as the previous lot. Of course, many people think that Baal is not being given a fair chance.

Perfectly content being an atheist. I have failed to believe in so many different gods so far. The next one invented will be just as unbelievable as the previous lot. Of course, many people think that Baal is not being given a fair chance.

Who cares about labels? Why does anyone worry about how others define them? If I were to label myself I say that I am a non-theist - separates me from the a@@hats at the various atheist groups that exist. That being said I'm not aware of ever being labeled because I don't talk about it - becoming a "non-believer" wasn't the most important decision that I ever had to make. It doesn't define me and so I see no reason to discuss it or worry about how others feel about it.

I don't really like being labeled. In this case though, I agree with how you feel about conceding to their insanity when I label myself as an atheist. I prefer to just call myself a non-delusional sane person. I try to avoid talking to religious folks if I can help it. Unfortunately, that tends to build a fairly lonely life.

I think belief in the supernatural is still the majority view so I have no problem with being self defined as atheist for now. I do get your point though.

I agree with Sam Harris, we don't have a term for people who don't believe in sasquatch, why do we need a word for people who don't believe in Set?

Unfortunately, I've found many who say they're atheist are really anti-theists and not fun to chill with.

I am ok with it because is more pervasive than santa- who only comes once a year and kids do at least know hes not real quite early on in their life.same goes for the tooth fairy its an adults jokey game to with children and nothing to do with . But is pervasive and can be cultish so I find the word 'atheist 'fine . I rarely have to use it but its there if I am called upon to account for myself and am willing to share my situation. A lot depends upon who is asking.

I'd argue that the state of believeing, of finding an explanation for the natural world, is a fundamental human instinct. Religion began with animism, an attempt to understand natural phenomenon by attributing spirits to features of the environment - including fellow animal species - which evolved into polytheistic mythologies, like those of ancient Greece that we're familiar with, that sought to make the unknown knowable (as in the story of Echo explaining the reverberation of sound to a people unfamiliar with the concept of sound waves), to be co-opted, organized and more narrowly formulated under the control of a politically powerful priest class once the invention of farming had led to permanent settlements. Today we turn to science (itself originally an offshoot of philosphy - the structured process of coming to terms with understanding our existence within the world) - and rapidly advancing technology to gain understanding of what, it turns out, is a mind-bogglingly complex planet, much less universe. The Hubble telescope now provides the insights once given by shaman and, much later, self-serving priesthoods.

If asked, I describe myself as an agnostic atheist, which does help to define my position for some but totally confuses "others".