I am asked all the time if I believe in the Big Bang, or if I believe in evolution.
Generally, the asker is shocked when I reply “no”.

Allow me to quote from Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad:

Most witches don’t believe in gods. They know that the gods exist, of course. They even deal with them occasionally. But they don’t believe in them. They know them too well. It would be like believing in the postman.

As for atheists being underrepresented in prisons, as much as I’d like to believe that, I’m skeptical: I suspect that what with the religiosity of the general population, and religious charities ministering to prisoners, that there’s an incentive to pose as a believer to get better treatment. And, I suppose, some number of atheists might find Jesus while they’re in prison. I’ve seen studies that correct for the latter problem by asking inmates their religion at their arrest or at the beginning of their incarceration, but I’ve never seen a study that explicitly tries to correct for inmates who lie.

By this definition, Saint Peter didn’t have a lot of faith. He denied Christ in the first chance he got on things got bad, and was skeptical about the Ressurection until he actually saw the evidence by himself.

Anyway, everyone has evidence to back up their beliefs, or lack therof. It’s silly to think people with different views are idiots who believe in random stuff for no good reason.

Uhm… wouldn’t “Faith implies belief without evidence.” be much more accurate? I DEFINATELY believe in the big bang and evolution, because of all the evidence that there is for them.

A crazy christian gaving a belief in the mythical sky daddy WITHOUT evidence is called faith. They’ll tell you that themselves.

—–

ATHIEST: So, you believe in this god of yours, despite the lack of evidence?
CHRISTIAN: Yes, I take it on faith.

—–

It’s interesting to me that someone wants to sub-divide people of doubt, as well. And to what end?

I would think the point is to understand the various different philosophical underpinnings at work, the breadth of belief and unbelief, and to better understand our own beliefs.

Gary 7