I realize I'm a bit late to the party. However the question kept me up all night, so...
I'm agnostic about the whole "god's existance" issue.
I will attempt to explain below the fold.
I'm going to use the
Mirriam Webster On-line Dictionary for a few definitions:
Faith
Main Entry: 1faith
Pronunciation: 'fAth
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural faiths 'fAths, sometimes 'fA[th]z
Etymology: Middle English feith, from Old French feid, foi, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust -- more at BIDE
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
synonym see BELIEF
- in faith : without doubt or question : VERILY
Belief
Main Entry: be·lief
Pronunciation: b&-'lEf
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English beleave, probably alteration of Old English gelEafa, from ge-, associative prefix + lEafa; akin to Old English lyfan
1 : a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
2 : something believed; especially : a tenet or body of tenets held by a group
3 : conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
synonyms BELIEF, FAITH, CREDENCE, CREDIT mean assent to the truth of something offered for acceptance. BELIEF may or may not imply certitude in the believer; my belief that I had caught all the errors. FAITH almost always implies certitude even where there is no evidence or proof; an unshakable faith in God. CREDENCE suggests intellectual assent without implying anything about grounds for assent; a theory now given credence by scientists. CREDIT may imply assent on grounds other than direct proof; gave full credit to the statement of a reputable witness. synonym see in addition OPINION
Going up a logical level from the question of "atheism" vs "belief", they're the same. Both positions are based on belief. And in this case the belief implies certitude on the behalf of the believer. You can't prove the existance of "god" and you can't disprove the existance of "god". You can "believe" one way or the other.
This question has been argued for thousands of years with no resolution. Which implies, to me anyway, people are asking the wrong fucking question. But I have no idea of what the "correct" question is. I don't care one way or the other actually. Personally, I like David Adams' answer, "42."
It's also what I'd call a "deterministic" question. It's based on being able to logically determine the truth or falsity of a proposition. And while this approach works wonderfully for lots and lots and lots of issues, this isn't one of them. IOW, for this particular question, deterministic logic is inadequate.
Which is no great surprise because we don't live in a deterministic universe anyway. We live in a probabilistic one. Quantum Mechanics is "the one and only" theory for hard sciences at present. QM is probabilistic. You don't know the state of anything until you observe it. To paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane, "Not only is the universe wierder than you imagine, it's wierder than you CAN imagine." And to this point, "god" has successfully eluded direct observation. OTOH, so have "quarks" but nobody in the reality based community seriously doubts they exist.
I'm agnostic because I don't think the question is answerable with the technology we currently possess. But in the future, who knows?