semanticsIt is one thing to hold a null set of beliefs (i.e. Agnosticism and Atheism generally), and another thing to assert that “I dis-believe the claim that [God] Exists”. What logical extrapolations are there for the above claim?
What further logical conclusions can be reached from just this claim?
Yes, “not believing in God” is very different from “believing there is no God”. The first is usually referred to as weak atheism, the latter strong atheism
To take the position of strong atheism–the negative claim that gods do not exist–means that you believe in something that is untestable (a negative), and by definition a matter of faith. With faith you can believe whatever you want, so one is not really bounded.
The more scientific point where you don’t believe in God, perhaps because it cannot be tested for, is essentially the falsifiability principle.
I think you need to look at it the other way around (it's actually not that difficult, I think).
First of, remember Russel's Teapot? To summarize the moral of that story: if I claim something that you cannot disprove, does that make it true?
Then consider the burden of proof, which is the underlying philosophical principle of Russel's Teapot: who needs to prove what?
Then this means that a rational person holds no religious beliefs, because no (real) evidence can be presented for it.
Then comes the part that answers your questions: the concept of God is supported by false (i.e., falsifiable) evidence. Therefore it is a false theory. And therefore, not believing in a false theory is the only thing you (being a rational person) can do.
So a rational person is actually always disbelieving all religious claims.
When people claim that the Strong Atheist position (here summarized as “I believe there is no God”) requires just as much faith as the any theistic position, there is almost always a single major misconception involved, related to the frustratingly nebulous definition of “God”
What people often hear is “I believe that there exists no entity fulfilling any reasonable definition of God.” This perceived definition encompasses all cultural, religious, and philosophical definitions of God. That includes ideas such as “God is really the universal consciousness that defines all matter,” or “God created the world in a fashion indistinguishable from natural processes, and he does not interfere with his creation. He just exists.”
Many of these possible positions cannot be proved or disproved because a reality in which such claims are true is completely indistinguishable, for us, from a reality in which they are false. It’s true that actively denying that such a thing is possible is essentially an act of faith. However, few atheists really have the time or energy to go about actively disbelieving such things, for the very same reasons that these beliefs cannot be confirmed; they just don’t matter.
The more common meaning behind active disbelief in God is best summed as “I believe that there exists no such entity with the attributes assigned to the Judeo Christian God.” That is to say, that there is no omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator entity that interacts with its creation and demands specific behaviors of human beings. That there is no entity who condemns humans to eternal torture unless they profess belief in a physically embodied manifestation of itself.
This sort of negative belief does not rely on faith, because it bases its claims on ideas that can be demonstrated or logically inferred. They might believe that omniscience is incompatible with free will, and that an entity with both is thus logically impossible, or that evidence indicates that there was no single individual who, 2000 years ago roamed the middle east, gathered disciples, was crucified by a roman governor, and then rose from the dead. These beliefs relate to concrete statements about reality, and so are not necessarily based in faith. They do not deny all possible concepts of God, only specific claims as to the nature and existence of God.
In short, if you’re asking someone why they don’t believe in God, make sure you both know what is meant by “God” in the first place.
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