Reply #5: You need to go one step further

[toddaa]

In fact, a lot of people who have posted on these threads do. Much of it is misunderstanding, but I've witnessed a lot of arrogance on the part of theists who seem to suffer from the notion that they have a better understanding of what atheism is than atheists. So here's a little definition lesson.

There are two forms of atheism, positive and negative.

Positive atheism holds that there is no god. Negative atheism, on the other hand, simply posits that one does not believe in a god. Agnosticism is sometimes mistaken for negative atheism, but agnosticism's position is that god is unknowable, meaning that no conclusion is ever possible. Until everyone can appreciate the fact that atheists are a fairly diverse bunch (shocking that!), these discussions will continue to get bogged down in semantical pissing matches.