Ask the Atheist

The way that I had always heard the term atheist used is someone who believes that God does not exist. It would seem that many people would define this as a strong atheist. (An agnostic strong atheist would then be someone who still has a belief that God doesn't exist, but is open to the possibility that he is wrong.) A person who is genuinely undecided, and is unwilling to commit to one belief or the other, would then be a weak atheist. (The qualifier agnostic would be redundant for a weak atheist.) If this is not how the terms are used, then someone can correct me. The term weak atheist is what most people would probably refere to as an agnostic(noun). My question is, if the common usage of the terms is already as I have described, then why insist on this pedantic, all-inclsive definition of atheist, which envelopes everyone by default who isn't a theist? It seems logical that, if the belief in God's existence has a title to itself, then the belief in His nonexistence deserves one as well. Perhaps those of us who are genuinely unsure, and do not consider ourselves closer to either position, would rather not be lumped in with one category over the other. That seems about as fair as labeling everyone either pro-life or pro-choioce, and then saying "If you haven't made up your mind, we're going to call you pro-choice." It would seem that a lot of confusion could be saved by using the more logical definitions. Before you wave the Oxford dictionary at me, keep in mind that dictionaries aren't final authorities. The meaning of words change, which is why dictionaries are always being rewritten, and perhaps sometimes there's a reason why they change.