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The various dictionaries define an atheist as:  "A person  who does not believe in the existence of God."   Without a clear definition of what one means by the word "God," such a definition is worse than meaningless.   It not only confuses the issue, it falsifies the definition because it lets each reader supply the meaning for the word "God."   

So,  before we can answer that question, "Do you believe in God?"  we need to define what you mean when you say "God."    

The False Face of God:    Are you talking about a fickle, angry, jealous, vengeful, intolerant, displeased, needy, and violent super-human being sitting on a cloud somewhere?   Are you talking about a God who can, at his whim or will, step outside the laws of the universe and do anything He chooses including acts of magic, doing you special favors or destroying your life in a momentary fit of anger? 

Are you talking about a god with an ego so great that  he demands our worship and a self-image so small that he demands our obedience -- a god so weak that he needs our help to punish the unfaithful and so weird that he murdered his own son as an expression of love° -- a god so angry, hypocritical, and unforgiving that he preaches forgiveness and, at the same time, is still punishing people today because a long- dead ancestor (Eve) ate "fruit" from a forbidden tree?   

Are you talking about a needy, self-centered, brooding god who offers free will and then demands obedience to rules that completely escape human understanding --  a god who, with what seems like arbitrary unpredictability, heaps great good fortune onto some, horrendous misery onto others, and pretty much ignores everyone else?

Are you talking about a masculine god who created women as sex slaves and servants --  a god so small he can fit inside of a single religion or into a single sacred text -- a god who demands that we murder people simply because they believe in a different religion?    Are you talking about The Great God Money,°    the most revered deity on the planet today?  

If these characteristics define God, then the answer is definitely NO!   I don't believe anything which fits that description could possibly be God.   I'd sooner believe that the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny were living in my attic.^*** 

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The Faceless Face of God:   When you ask, "Do you believe in God?"  
Are you are talking about the source of all creation -- a source and a consciousness that transcends human understanding? 

If you are talking about the sum total of all that is --  the ever-flowing essence of everything --  the central cause of all creation,  from the minutest to the greatest -- the source of everything we are and everything we experience,

If you are talking about "An Infinite Source"  who/which/that  has created a set of invisible laws° --  laws that are as immutable as the law of gravity, laws that we each can intentionally use to create our own personal experiences (or ignore at our own peril),

If you are talking about a "God" that is unknown and unknowable -- a God that expresses itself in a mysterious form of consciousness-- a "God" that expresses itself as freedom, love, joy, and beauty -- a god that manifests itself as the sum total of everything we are aware of in what we call the physical universe --  a God that we are each an intimate part of --  a God which is that mysterious part of ourselves we refer to when we say "I' of "me,"  

If that's your definition of God, then the answer is "DEFINITELY YES,  I DO BELIEVE IN GOD!"

. . . And a Little Common Sense:  Perhaps the real question is not about in what form the source of creation is or isn't.   Perhaps the real question is:  Is the consciousness we refer to as "I" or "me" a function of the physical body or is the physical body is a function of consciousness?    

Imagining God as a fickle, angry, jealous, vengeful, intolerant, displeased, needy, and violent super-human being sitting on a cloud somewhere is at best, an archaic and dysfunctional perspective of the source of everything.   It doesn't take an atheist to reject that perspective.   

All it takes is a willingness to look the physical evidence, a willingness to question the stories you accepted as real when you were a defenseless little child,  and a little common sense.   

Atheism -- What it Isn't:   Many of those who say they are atheists have not thoroughly analyzed  the issue  other than to say that they reject the traditional, Christian definition of a weird, bizarre superhuman being separate from His creation (described above as The False Face of God).    Simply rejecting such a definition of God  is not atheism. 

Real atheism is based upon a belief that consciousness is a function of the physical body and the that one's consciousness dies with the death of the body.  Such a belief does not standup when  tested against the evidence.  

Science can find no evidence whatsoever that indicates that consciousness is in any way a part of the physical structure.  Millions of people have had personal experience that have taken them outside their bodies.   Over the centuries, hundreds of thousands of people have been able to leave the physical body at will.  Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to see into a realm of reality the is invisible to the rest of us.   Hundreds of thousands of people have been able to hear sounds, and carry on intelligent conversations with beings in realm of reality the rest of us do not have access to.  Famous inventors, master musicians, Nobel Prize winning scientists have all brought wonders to us from that part of reality the skeptics say is merely one's imagination.  

Skeptics say that all this non-physical stuff  is just a person's imagination.   Well,  they are obviously correct, but what the skeptics ignore is the evidence which indicates that physical matter is not real --  that everything is energy -- the energy is controlled by consciousness --  that imagination is the core of consciousness.  

One simply cannot use physical evidence to prove or disprove the existence of something that is not physical.   Atheism is simply another religion in which believers  reject the existence of God  the same way religious true believers accept His/Her/It's existence  --  by a Leap of Faith ° 

So the bottom  line is:  Regardless of what you or I believe, the Universe had a source.   What that Source is, what nature of  that Source is,  and how He/She/It functions are still  the worlds greatest mysteries

A personal Note from this Author:   Many years ago, my first self-awareness teacher sat in front of me, leaned toward me,  looked directly into my eyes and then, in a slow deliberate voice, said to me,  "I am God!"   She paused for a moment, allowing time for the shock waves of doubt, disbelief to ripple through my mind, and then added,  "And so are you.   The only difference between us is that I know it and you don't?"    

Today, I hold an experiential understanding of what she meant.   But unfortunately, I cannot convey my understanding to you and more than my teacher could convey her understanding to me.   

References in the Christian Bible indicate that Jesus said essentially the same thing in slightly different words.  (John 14:12 ,   Psalms 82:6   Matthew 17:20   John 1:1   Isaiah 41:23,    John 10:30-35  + 10:38   John 10:17 )

As an experiment, go into your bathroom, close the door so that you'll not be disturbed or overheard, look into the mirror and say,    "I am God!   And so is everyone else.   I just don't realize it yet."  

Listen to the words your mind will so quickly answer back.   Say it again.   "I am God!   And so is everyone else.   I just don't realize it yet."  Stand there looking at a reflection of God in the mirror and contemplate the implications and meaning of that statement.

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