No.

What do I mean when I say that? An accusation often incorrectly leveled against atheists is that they are just as dogmatic as theists; that their belief in no god is just as faith-based as belief in god.

What I do not mean is that I am absolutely certain that there is no god. Rather the statement refers to my unwillingness to believe the hypothesis ‘there is a god’, due to lack of any evidence. That’s the important distinction to recognize — when I say ‘there is no god’ I am rejecting a hypothesis, whereas when somebody says ‘there is a god’, they are proposing a hypothesis. Lack of evidence is a good reason to reject a hypothesis. Furthermore, the lack of evidence to the contrary of a hypothesis is not a reason to accept that hypothesis. Most people have no problem with this concept in science, or their everyday lives — except when it comes time to apply it to the god hypothesis.

For example, the statement ‘butterflies exist’ can be verified by going outside and observing the winged insects which we have given the name ‘butterfly’ to. Alternatively, you could look up pictures or documentation on butterflies which have been compiled by other people who have encountered butterflies. Alternatively, there is no (real) observational evidence to verify the hypothesis, ‘Bigfoot exists’. Most people would agree with me, therefore, when I say ‘Bigfoot does not exist’. However, in the same way as I say ‘there is no god’, I do not mean that I have evidence to prove that there is no such thing as Bigfoot. In fact, proving a negative is often impossible to do (short of some type of logical contradiction or impossibility). When I make this claim, I am merely refuting the hypothesis that there is a Bigfoot in a less formal manner of speech. I could go around telling people that, ‘I do not believe that there is sufficient evidence to back up the claim that there is a god’, but that would take too long to say and would often just confuse the issue even more.

We often say that we do not believe something exists, when we really mean that we do not believe any hypothesis that posits the existence of that thing. This is just another example of religion grasping at straws to try, as their belief system becomes outdated and irrelevant.