Not one fact or proof ever. To have faith in that is proof of your mind not working properly

Totally comfortable with it, although I used to be much more shy about it. But now any time someone starts spouting off religious stuff to me, my response is "You know I'm an Atheist, right?" Now I have no problems, I proudly identify as Atheist, and even post videos on my Facebook page designed to help those struggling with their loss of faith, and introduces them to Atheism, and let's them know that they are not alone in their lack of belief for some omnipotent being that controls all. I Don't force my beliefs on anyone, and I shoot down anyone that tries to force their beliefs on me, but I am more than happy to answer questions for people and help them realize a world without the shackles of religion.

I wish the word was more accepted, but that's what I am.

I am uncomfortable with the label Atheist and often search for a more neutral term, mainly in an effort not to offend my more insecure friends.

Very. I think it is mostly the religious who aren't, and mostly because they don't understand what it means.

Its not the use of that word that is the problem, but how it is perceived by people that is.

In a perfect world there would be no atheists, but it's not, and as long as people believe ancient theistic crap, they need to know that there are atheistic non crap believers in the world. But if there was a God, he could straighten this out, easily !

I don't want to redefine who I am. People come up with many terms to make themselves seem more respectful because they fear rejection or negative consequences. I embrace the word atheist.

In the late '80s early' 90s those who learned that I did not believe in GOD labeled me a bad person.
Now, most who know me understand that I am a very good human! Some say that I have a better chance of going to "heaven" than most Christians!!!
They totally don't get it but, I'm not offended.

I am a logophile. Words help us understand and "atheist" is simple and descriptive (as long as we agree on the definition of course!)

Atheist has a bit of shock value so why not?

Completely comfortable

I have no problem with the atheist label in general. I do expand on that by saying that I am atheist/evidentialist/rationalist because it describes my position in the scheme of things much better than the single word 'atheist'. I hold no beliefs other than the mundane that we all use to navigate our world. I require evidence in order to seriously consider anything, and any discussion must be rational or I won't engage.

I do not feel that we need a label. Everyone is born an atheist and then some are taught to be believe in something making them a theist. I have no problem identifying myself as an atheist, but it is not something I think about or let dictate my actions. For example, I would never say something like, "I would never go to your church because I am an atheist." However I would say, "I have no interest in attending your church service. It does not appeal to me." If someone asks me if I am atheist, I also answer yes because by definition that is what I am.

I feel fine identifying with that word - even though I don't discuss my views often with my family.

I also understand the baggage that unfortunately comes with it. So I can see several different sides of this whole discussion.

Though I don't utter it to just anyone, I'm fine w/the term. It's honest, straight-forward, and means what it says. Shout it from the mountain tops!

I'm fine with it, and think we should be open about it, so that the word loses some of its baggage with the general (religious) public. The more people that are public that they are atheists, the more that will be comfortable with the word, until eventually we no longer need it as we will be the majority.

David Silverman talks about this in his book, and points out that most people don't understand many of the other words used by atheists (eg. humanist, freethinker, etc.), so will assume you believe in a god until you explain otherwise.

That is a really interesting perspective. I think that people have been brainwashed from birth to believe the ridiculous to be credible, and I think that virtually everything in our society (particularly in places like the US) has been built on that myth. It makes sense to me that we carry legacy terminology with us.

I went to a Catholic School (Christian Brothers) from 1953 to 1962. My mother was a Catholic by virtue of the fact that HER mother (a Lutheran from Denmark) married an Irish Catholic here in Australia. My Dad was nominally Methodist, but of course way back then in the Protestant/Catholic wars, if a Methodist wanted to marry a Catholic, Catholicism always won out!

When I matriculated from Year 12 at the age of 16 and went to Teachers College, I read EVERY book in a number of libraries about Comparative Religion! I learnt so many things that the Christian Brothers had neglected to tell me about other religions --- although I will NEVER accuse my wonderful teachers of any of the awful things that are thrown about today!

I very soon came to the realisation that there were huge numbers of religions in the world, including a number that had immense followings! They could not ALL be right, and I decided that on the balance of probabilities, NONE of them were!

I have no problem at all about calling myself and atheist. I have been a paid up member of the Australian Skeptics for decades and a paid up member of the Australian Atheists for almost as long!

I employ a lot of people and have done for a very long time, and all my staff know my attitude to gods. They accept it and we often laugh about it together!

At the same time, I have people who work for me who are religious and I welcome them --- provided their beliefs do not affect their work performance --- and I am yet to see a case where it did!

I'm not happy being labelled for something I don't believe in or do.

It's like saying I'm an aphilatelist because I don't collect stamps.

I prefer to be called a free-thinker.

OK

I've been an Atheist all my life, well Satanist for 20 years(which is not a bad thing, still Atheist, I just follow the guidelines of Satanism) I just recently found out that people are nervous around Atheists, and to me, the word Atheist doesn't flinch me, my family has known since I was able to walk that I did not believe in God, Santa, or the Tooth Fairy lol

Very comfortable, and here's why:

Although I see the irony of embracing the word and the insanity it might seem to perpetuate, I am also arrogant enough to assert that even if there WAS a god, I'd be an atheist, because the broad definition of the term is "without god". If all that we see exist and that we see happening around us actually could be proven to be attributed to any sort of "god" I would STILL choose to be "without him" because upon observing the human race, the world around me, and the known universe, I've come to the conclusion that IF a god is responsible for all of this, "he" is a capricious asshole, and I'd still reject him to his face.

I prefer the term agnostic for myself. Any religion I can name can be disproven but I can't say for certain that there isn't some higher power out there that doesn't care about who wins the football game and gives little worry to whether or not we get hit by an asteroid. In simple terms, while most existing religions can be proved false I can not in full faith there is no god at all because there still might be one out there somewhere busy playing with his other ant farms or whatever. That's just my take on it.

I don't much care about it, it doesn't tell you much about me as a person. That's pretty much my only contention with the word.