[Gualdrapo]

I grew up studying in a catholic school. Once a teacher that was involved with the convent, teaching us some logic basics, gave us some copies from the chapter 2 of Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World as a recommended lecture. Could get the whole book and read it and ended becoming an atheist.

[onecommentman]

Atheist or hard agnostic?

Agnostic as in “I haven’t had an experience to suggest there is a God”.

Atheist as in “my faith-based initiative is to totally believe there isn’t a God”.

[mkl]

Atheism is not generally faith-based. That's kind of the whole point.

[aronpye]

Yes it is, you believe there isn’t a God if you’re an atheist. At this time there isn’t a way to prove there isn’t a God.

[mkl]

Proof of absence is not required for lack of belief, and lack of belief in any god makes me an atheist [1]. There's nothing faith-based about it.

There are millions of other things I don't believe in too; it's the default position in many cases.

[1] That's the definition: "a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods" - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheist

[heintzsight]

I'd argue that it is still a statement of faith.

[nicharesuk]

To respond to this distinction and stay on topic, a book I'd recommend is Atheism: The Case against god by George H Smith.