Athiest-one who believes in God but not knowing it.

I am an atheist because I don't believe in any gods. You need not disbelieve to be an atheist. I've seen too many arguments with horrible flaws, too many cults with absurd beliefs, and too many religious beliefs so silly that I simply couldn't wrap my head around them. I am an atheist because it honestly doesn't make any sense at all. I've looked at the evidence. I've read the Koran, the Bible, the Book of Mormon. I've looked at the arguments in favor of God. I've talked with believers. I cannot help but disbelieve. There's a certain breaking point where you just have to call shenanigans on the whole damn thing. I'll freely admit that I don't have absolute proof there's no God. I don't have absolutely proof there's no anything-I-disbelieve-in. But, when you've argued with people who think that there are reptoid aliens inhabiting politicians because cameras sometimes have a reflection flare, well, I couldn't believe that even if I tried. Let me be clear to the readers here, as John McCarthy once wrote, "to count oneself as an atheist one need not claim to have a proof that God doesn't exist. One only need believe that the state of evidence on the God question is similar to that on the werewolf question." -- You need not disbelieve in gods to be an atheist. If you do not believe in god, you are an atheist. The middle position of not disbelieving or believing is called 'weak atheism' and is a perfectly respectable position. However, for all the claims of evidence and facts... I believe the werewolf myth to have nothing at the bottom. I do not believe that the full moon triggers a man-wolf transition or any similar phenomenon exists. I disbelieve in werewolves. I disbelieve in gods. Atheists aren't confined to disbelief, but you can only laugh at so many arguments for God and silly beliefs before disbelief comes naturally. For example, did you know Mormons wear special holy underwear and don't even take them off to shower? There are a good number of atheists who neither believe in gods nor disbelieve in them. In this regard, my opponent is battle straw men. As for his "point of validity": a) Believing in something is not disbelieving in its opposite. If I do not believe in string theory that doesn't imply I disbelieve in it. Quite frankly, I just don't know and don't believe in either direction. One could easily look at two sides of an argument and not believe either side, anybody who has seen sports or political arguments will quickly relate. b) Belief is not a choice. Can you believe the sky is pink? Can you believe fairies are fluttering about? Can you believe the moon is made of green cheese? Can you believe in gods? Can you believe in flying rabbits? You don't choose your beliefs. And though a good argument can switch them, I can't force myself to believe things which I find to be absurd and impossible. I understand that many theists rely on faith, but I see that as being completely incoherent. Many people believe, on faith, contradictory claims to what other people believe on faith. It perhaps gives some people some small control over their ability to believe things. But, most people struggle with it, their faith slips and they stop believing and need to keep trying to force themselves to believe when their minds are rejecting it on the same grounds I reject it: it simply isn't believable. c) I have never been much of a fan of dark matter as a physics concept. I've thought it was a little bit of faulty math to try to make Newtonian physics fit with what we observe galaxies doing. I now believe it is actually out there, and not because I want to. The evidence is just mounting and like it or not, I can't avoid that belief. Likewise, I can't decide to believe the sky to be pink or elves make my shoes, or that God exists. There's no choice there, no decision. As much as I may want to believe I'll live forever or never have hard times... I can't. I cannot choose what I believe. d) As for free will, it depends on what you mean. The Doctrine of Free Will is that humans have a magical ability to decide which is beyond the reach of some deity which is somehow independent of the brain. I do not find myself believing that. We certainly have volitional freedom. I could have chosen to debate you on this topic or I could have chosen not to. But, free will tends to grab that simple statement of fact and expand it into theological directions it doesn't seem to naturally go. If I accept that my brain is simply a big ball of nerves, as every autopsy of every brain has found them to be, and there are still some odd things we just don't understand; I can no more believe that God does it than I can believe that when I'm not looking gremlins are making my computer function. I cannot help but believe that the motherboard and CPU I installed are doing the work. Likewise because nerves, impulses, lobes, and cells are the only things we find inside brains, albeit in amazingly complex arrangements, I can't help but believe that my brain is similar to other brains and works on the same principles. I never chose to believe that the sky is blue, nor did I choose to disbelieve in werewolves. I don't believe in god. I have found no compelling reason why everything I find to be so absurd about religion isn't absurd. I have found no compelling reason why all of the shortfalls of all of the reasons I have seen for such a God are not shortfalls. I have seen nothing to contradict the history of religions of theories as to how they naturally they form without divine intervention. I have seen nothing so difficult to explain that I hopelessly grasp at supernatural straws. And, I have never seen a reason to suppose there is a supernatural straw to grasp at. I do not believe in god because it isn't believable, plausible, or comprehensible. I cannot pretend that I do not find it absurd. I cannot fear a hell I cannot believe in. I cannot desire a heaven I cannot not believe in. I cannot chose to believe because the severity or duration of punishments a loving god will inflict on me otherwise. I might be well advised to to take my chances on the absurd to avoid an unbelievable fate, but it *is* unbelievable. I can't believe it. I do not believe it. My opponent argues that atheists choose to disbelieve in gods using a god-given ability of free will. I don't believe that. It's absurd. I don't choose to believe or not to believe nor does anybody else. I see no reason to suppose that my freedom of choice pivots on some unproven metaphysical whatnot. Even if there are some mysterious things about the brain, I do not and cannot suppose there is some odd choice-soul-spirit-entity thing making choices possible. I can throw my dog two steaks and it will choose between them. I do not think that that requires magically powers on the part of the dog. How am I suppose that my ability to chose between two steaks does? Allow me to again point out that the topic of debate is whether or not I, or other atheists, believe in God without even knowing. If we did this, we wouldn't be atheists. If I'm believing absurd notions behind my own back, and fooling even myself, how does FexHere know it? A simpler explanation is that FexHere is wrong, making assumptions he shouldn't be making, and believing premises which shouldn't be believed. He is incorrect.