Ok, before we move on...
Not having a belief in god is different than asserting that there is no god. That's as clear as I can make it - i think. (the other language being used was not getting to and changing the root of your misunderstanding - maybe this will)
Or maybe you get it already and it just seems like there should be more there to you. Idk.
I realize it's really odd that this has gone on so long with hardly any points revolving around it. But . . . it's a necessary distinction to make if one is going to understand the different considerations they have to make when it comes to the question of god.
Maybe I'm assuming too much about who is having these beliefs, but I'm pretty sure I understand the difference now.
However, if we're talking about normal people like you and I, who understand the situation of God, then if we do not have a belief in God, we
do have a belief
in no God, since we understand that there either must be or must not be a God. If someone is uncertain as to whether or not God exists, I would classify that as completely separate because they don't really believe one way or the other, and to stop the mix up between when an atheist says "I don't believe in God" which means "I believe God does not exist" and when the uncertain person says "I don't believe in God" which means "I'm not certain enough about the situation to have a belief at all"
Atheism is not saying necessarily saying a higher power does not exist
Yes, it most certainly is. See the definitions referenced on the previous page from multiple sources.
An agnostic is just someone who cannot decide if there is a higher power or not
Agnosticism is the belief that mankind is
incapable of knowing whether a higher power exists. It's much stronger than a simple uncertainty as to whether or not he/she thinks God exists.
Quote from name:Dictionary.com
a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2.a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
And since you don't like dictionary.com for some reason:
Quote from name:Merriam-Webster
Etymology: Greek agnōstos unknown, unknowable, from a- + gnōstos known, from gignōskein to know — more at know
Date: 1869
1 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
2 : a person unwilling to commit to an opinion about something <political agnostics>
In colloquial use "agnostic" may be what you said, someone who just can't decide, but in a debate such as this we should probably make a distinction between the two classes of positions "agnostic" and "uncertain" to prevent semantic discrepancies.
Secondly, an atheist may or may not have faith. There's nothing in the definitions that says an atheist must or must not have faith. However, it is important to make the distinction between religious faith, the strong acceptance of material without regard to probable reason, versus probabilistic faith, the acceptance of material which is supported by reasoning of some sort. In a religion, we are told to believe in God. A person of probabilitic faith may refuse to believe in God because he thinks it's unlikely God exists, but he may accept the big bang theory on faith because it correlates with his observations of the universe. While both are forms of faith, the difference is that religious faith assumes true, while probabilistic faith assumes false until probable evidence is presented. What they share is the fact that both believe in an unproven claim, despite the fact its unproven. They differ only in the likelihood of being true. As to which position is better? If we had the probability distribution of the universe we might be able to say, but until we find that, either method may result in a greater chance of successes, where we define a success to be the number of beliefs which turn out to be true. Kinda like sometimes when you play Street Fighter or Tekken and you smash buttons against a really good player and kick his ass. We'd need the cosmic "button smashing vs. good player" binomial distribution to say for sure.
Also why don't you like Dictionary.com? It's just as good as any other dictionary.
None.