I guess I will just have to throw out any definition of atheism because from what everyone is telling me, all the definitions are wrong. So what we are left with, in my opinion, is a group of people who refuse to accept any definition, much less say what they actually believe or don't believe in an effort to avoid any actual scrutiny of said belief.
If you want to know what an atheist does or doesn't believe in, all you have to do is ask.  The reason you're getting conflicting answers is because 1) everything you hear in church about atheists is wrong, it's slander meant to put us down or portray us as somehow dangerous, and 2) atheists do not form a group, we do not agree on anything.  Not even what it means to be an atheist.  You could get several different answers from people on this forum alone.  But those answers are 'true', in the sense that we're not misrepresenting what we do or don't believe in.  And whatever it is we do or don't believe in, it's not what a church would have you think about us.  Because we're not part of a group nor do we hold an organized or somehow official dogma or set of beliefs, it's perfectly natural that there is no orthodoxy in atheism.  Broadly speaking, in public discourse atheism simply means 'without belief in god(s)', though most of us will qualify that somehow.  When I speak on atheism, I speak for myself and not for anyone else on this forum or elsewhere.  By extension, Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett do not speak for me. 

As for the idiocy of 'avoid(ing) any actual scrutiny of said belief', again most of us are perfectly willing to spell out exactly what we do or don't believe, and why.  I don't think I've ever seen an atheist be deliberately coy about his or her beliefs, unless his or her safety, job, etc was possibly on the line.  Because, you see, church folk say a lot of nasty shit about us and even today, thousands of atheists are discriminated against in employment, housing, etc, in the USA.  Students are expelled from schools, teachers are fired, people are evicted from apartments, terminated from their employment, simply because they don't believe in whatever sky-daddy the majority happens to pay lip service to.  Not to mention the endless stream of public figures who go on the TeeVee and basically tell us to shut the hell up because they don't like what we have to say.  Notwithstanding all of this,  very few atheists ever organize, join forums, discussions, or become social activists the way some have (eg, the school prayer lawsuits), because most of us are independent people who tend to be the self-reliant type.

Jody image

  When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
-- Ansel Adams