Agnostics who say "no proof either way" don't believe in any gods, and *are* thus atheists in one (narrow) sense of not having any god beliefs. But they choose to call themselves Agnostic, as I understand it, to distance themselves from others who profess to believe there are no gods, which is another (narrow) sense of the term. I don't have a problem with that choice, although I choose to claim the term Atheist in the hopes of getting the hoodoo off the word so other agnostics don't have to prefer not to be called it.

Hope that makes sense.

Two things I love about this kind of discussions are a) that because the world turns and we have Catters ally ally over, whenever I go to sleep the thread goes on and when I check it in the morning has always gone off in interesting directions. Hope that is the same experience for those of you across the pond, and b) that I'm not the only one who keeps bipping it back to the top!