When is an atheist not an atheist?

To be an atheist, you only need to do one thing.

It’s quite simple… Just lack belief in a deity. If you lack belief in all deities, you’re in. There’s no certificate, award or fruit basket though. Sorry. That’s the only thing that people need to do to claim the title of ‘atheist’ but many of the religious get confused around this point.

I write on another platform and there’s a constant stream of questions from the religious folks trying to scrape up accounts from ex-atheists who converted. Genuine accounts of atheists converting to religion are pretty rare which shouldn’t be surprising given the religious switch statistics. Atheists are simply less likely to convert to a religion.

Of those that declare themselves atheists, only 4.3% are shifting out while a whopping 18% are shifting into the ‘unaffiliated’ brackt. Simply put, once someone is an atheist, they’re unlikely to find religion again. A recurrent theme that leaks through on many of the accounts of supposed ‘atheist conversion’ is that many theists don’t truly understand what atheism is and I think it’s worthwhile clarifying. While many of the tales told are touching in a lukewarm kind of way, they’re also mistaken.

• Turning your back on or rejecting a deity doesn’t make a difference. Rejection or anger at a deity…