I Am An Atheist

There is a big difference between having a belief and not having a belief. If you believe there is no god, you are asserting there is no god - that this is a conclusion you reached, to your satisfaction, after examing some body of evince or invalidated or unsubstantiated claims. If you do not have a belief about the existence of any god, then you have no belief - you have not come to any conclusion. And that is all it means - it does not imply you think there could possibly be one, it just means you don't have enough information to lead you to believe that there is one. Either way, you're an atheist (i.e. not a theist). The other option is that you believe there is a god (usually a specific one), which would make you a theist.
When someone says they don't believe in a god, you might ask them whether they mean they have no belief, or if they believe there is no god, but generally it usually means they're reasonably sure there is no god.
The final option, apathiesm, is more concerned with othe matters to invest the time or energy to entertain such pointless questions about whether or not a god exists, and where's my sandwich?

Even if there's a god we should oppose him/her for their cruelty and violence and the requirement for bloodletting to satisfy their sense of justice. Believers hate to admit that our laws are more civil than the laws of the holy books. That we are more compassionate than anyone who wrote those holy books. The writer was certainly not a god unless God has human flaws and the God in the holy books has human flaws, which leads to one conclusion, that man created God .

they all mean the same thing. if you don't believe there is a God, you believe there is no God. that's your rational conclusion based on the evidence. don't let theists trick you into thinking that belief is faith based and therefore at the same level of their beliefs. the word "belief" does not always imply a guess or superstition. I believe that 2+2=4. I also believe there are no gods. I don't believe in gods.

- "I believe there's no deities" = a belief according to which there's no deities = a belief.
- to lack a belief, not to believe = no belief.

- You may even find people telling that ifyou use the word "deities", you necessarily believe in them a bit.
- I personally say "I don't believe in any deities", just like "I don't believe in any unicorns".

Lacking belief and holding no belief in god are the same thing. It is when you are entirely unconvinced that a god exists. This does not mean you are entirely convinced that god doesn't exist.

Saying you believe there is no god means you are convinced that god does not exist.

If you lack a belief in a god, then you may recognize that a god could possibly exist. If you believe that there is no god, then you do not recognize that a god could possibly exist.

I'm with you- I think it's all unnecessary pedantry. Those terms only have importance to non-Atheists, who have a weird need to classify our disbelief in great detail :-)

For me at least, I am indifferent to how the loonies wish to classify my lack of belief in their silly gods.

The second statement is a statement of what you believe. The other two are statements of what you do not believe. The second is a stronger statement than the others.

I think they are the same. Atheist = NOT a Theist.