system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is the absence of a belief in something the same as a belief in the absence of that something?

I've always thought the definition of an atheist as a person who does not have a belief in the existence of a God or Gods. Yet sometimes I see self-proclaimed atheists say they believe there is no God. But is that the same thing?
gpt
Yeah those are distinct. An atheist has the belief that there is no god. An agnostic lacks this belief as well as the belief that there is a god, that is they lack a belief either way in the existence or non-existence of a deity.

Edit: you can also think of babies as a nice counterexample. Most babies know and believe very little. A one year old likely does not believe in the existence of the planet Jupiter. They have probably never heard of the planet Jupiter and haven’t had the opportunity to form any beliefs about it yet. But this doesn’t mean they believe that there is no planet Jupiter, again, they haven’t ever heard of it and haven’t had the opportunity to form any beliefs about it yet.