Sure, I know the differences as defined by Webster. I am interested in what our members say.
For myself: I suppose there might be now, or might have been at some time in the billions of years since this Universe was spawned, several species out there with vastly more intelligence, wisdom, science, and technology than we have accumulated to this date. But those beings, if they ever existed, most certainly have no interest or effect upon the present day events of this planet. They certainly do not care about, or intervene in my day to day activities
I believe that any species in this Universe is bound by the natural laws of Physics.
I firmly believe that when electrical activity in the brain ceases, all that a man is, was, or ever will be ceases to exist. Thus there can be no Afterlife, no Heaven, and no Hell. I believe that all stories of supernatural events, contrary to the known and unknown laws of science, are matters of coincidence, misinterpretation, and or delusion.
Agnostic or Atheist? Or is there really a difference?
By definition, your hpothesis means that all thought is determined by electro-chemical processes; material processes of cause and effect, if you will. Materialism (your hypothesis, or belief---the idea that the universe is comprised of nothing more than material causes and their effects) necessarily entails a denial of any such thing as the metaphysical freedom of the mind, freedom of thought that is. This entails the belief that "truth" is entirely illusory. For there to be such a thing as "truth" the mind must be free to distinguish the truth from error and materialism denies that possibility. A mind whose "thoughts" are the mere by-products (effects) of material causes is not free in the metaphysical sense to apprehend anything. Truth, in the materialis universe, is therefore an oxymoron. It is a self-contradiction. Materialists are therefore very much like that very first philosopher---the Cretan who said that all Cretans are liars!
Atheism is a dogmatic position that goes way beyond the evidence and is, in the final analysis, self-refuting.
