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Can go either way but I think more common is believe no gods exist.

Yes, if you really want to get into the depths of it, there is a difference. You will always get different answers as to the meaning of atheism depending on who you ask. To be honest, atheism is the most disorganized belief in the world. It could mean any number of things. Atheists do not follow a set of beliefs, and I've never met two atheists with exactly the same views. You also must take care not to confuse atheism and agnosticism, which is the belief that it is impossible to know whether or not there are gods. It's very confusing. Most atheists don't even fully understand it.

There may be a subtle difference to you but not in the definition of atheist!!

ATHEIST - someone who does not believe in a God – any God – not just the Christian one. But that does not mean they do not hold strong moral or religious beliefs! They can follow any religion that does not have a god and there are a lot of those!!

But simply lacking a belief means they are agnostics!!

AGNOSTIC – Does not believe anything can be know about or proved about a god. Thus they can still believe a god exists. This description obviously fits a lot of Christians!!!

All atheist by definition lack belief in a God. The difference between atheist that simply lack a belief in a God and atheist that have a positive belief Gods do not exist, is the difference between weak atheism (just a lack of belief) and strong atheism (lack of belief + a positive belief no Gods exist).

No matter how many times this question is brought up, there is no underlying semantic difference between the two - they both mean that you do not believe in gods.

I guess I'll ellaborate a bit... The claim is that "I believe that no gods exist" is a positive assertation and therefore the burden of proof lays upon the person or persons making it. This is of course incorrect as it is not established whether or not gods exist and therefore it is about as much a positive assertation as saying "I believe that no unicorns exist".

Just because there are people who believe in concepts like God(which actually is created by human beings with imagination), the word with an A to negate it is used. By mere continued use of words you can not bring anything into existence.An atheist does not believe in a God since no God exists at all.

"Atheist" means lack of belief in gods. "Theist" means belief in a god or gods, and the prefix "a" means "without", as in asexual and asymmetrical.

And it's not actually a subtle difference, it's a significant one. It's the presence of belief vs. the absence of belief.

atheists believe that no gods exist and reject the idea that anything other than their own action affect their destiny.

Agnostics are not sure what to believe and so are open to the possibility of a god/gods with out rejecting the concept outright.

I do not believe in the existence of deities. I believe that deities do not exist. These are identical statements. Logically there is no difference, subtle or otherwise.

yes spot on. there is a different. the term atheist states that one does not believe in a god not that one believes there are no gods. the latter position would be one an anti-theist would make.