Atheist, Agnostic, or Both

People seem to have a hard time grasping even the most basic of definitions. Mark Cheney's April 8th Going Mental blog post, "Neil deGrasse Tyson: Atheist or Agnostic?" was not that unusual but still incredibly annoying. I'd say it is ironic that his blog is hosted on the Big Think aggregator but there are far too many on the site that are not thoughtful in the least. In just three short paragraphs he manages to cram in a whole slew of ignorance, distortion, and plain old stupidity.

Just to set a few things straight I'll give the briefest possible definitions.
Atheist: an individual who does not hold any belief in or related to a god or gods
Agnostic: an individual who acknowledges that supernatural/metaphysical claims either cannot be known with any certainty or is unknowable by its nature.

In effect an individual can simultaneously be both an atheist and an agnostic. I do not believe in God nor do I insist with absolute certainty that my view is definitive. By conceding the possibility of being wrong, not that I actually think I'm wrong, I am by definition both an atheist and an agnostic. Despite the common misconception, agnosticism in no way means that the individual cannot make up their mind.

Cheney doesn't seem to be capable of grasping this. He makes the moronic statement that, "Richard Dawkins, the most famous atheist in the world, created a stir when he recently declared that he was not an atheist after all, but an agnostic." NO, he didn't. He said what he has been saying for decades. Though he is confident in his position that there is no God, as a scientist he cannot and will not claim absolute certainty. He has also pointed out that it is virtually impossible to be certain about any knowledge claims. That would make him an agnostic as well as an atheist not an agnostic instead of an atheist.

As for Neil deGrasse Tyson, he is also both an atheist and an agnostic. The only difference in his case is that he does not like the label atheist. Whether he chooses to use the word or not he does fit the definition. He has on more than one occasion confirmed that he does not believe in God. He simply does not like all the connotations and assumption that have become ingrained in the term.