Doug Orleans's Journal

But many, if not most, religious people use "belief" in a different sense in religious contexts than they do in non-religious contexts. When I say "I believe that there is an underlying pattern to the workings of the universe" I don't mean "the preponderance of evidence supports the existence of an underlying pattern", I mean "the concept of an underlying pattern provides meaning to my understanding of existence". So I think it's reasonable for someone like gemini6ice not to agree with "I believe there is no God" in the second sense of believe and therefore not to call themselves an atheist. Ultimately, I think it's up to the individual.