I don't see much of a difference. Those who believe in God think a creator is responsible for the spiritual world while those who claim to have spirituality don't assign credit. and maybe if unicorns gave life, struggle and death meaning and purpose for billions of wandering souls then they wouldn't be so laughable.
But one of the core principles of atheism is skepticism. That is the reasoning behind disbelief in God. So how does a skeptic follow any organized religion.
How do you know those unicorns don't though? I could claim they do and you won't be able to disprove me.
God has a reason for remaining ambiguous (possible to allow a secular alternative to exist). Your shy unicorn has no reason other than to help countless atheist make an argument.
Not necessarily. There are no "core principles" of atheism. Atheism is simply a position where either one ascribes no concept of God onto their reality, or denies the existence of what they perceive to be the definition of a God. A skeptic can be anything, but only if be has reached the ultimate answer, in which case they would be skeptics anymore. The attitude of Skepticism towards the knowable is summed up by Sextus Empiricus in the following words: "But the chief ground of Skepticism is that to every reason there is an opposite reason equivalent, which makes us forbear to dogmatize." The Skeptics were strongly opposed to the Dogmatists and were agnostic in that they held the accepted theories regarding Deity to be self-contradictory and undemonstrable. "How," asked the Skeptic, "can we have indubitate knowledge of God, knowing not His substance, form or place; for, while philosophers disagree irreconcilably on these points, their conclusions cannot be considered as undoubtedly true?" Since absolute knowledge was considered unattainable, the Skeptics declared the end of their discipline to be: "In opinionatives, indisturbance; in impulsives, moderation; and in disquietives, suspension." - Manly Palmer Hall
Also, I don't think we should ascribe the term organised religion to Buddhism, or buddhistic practice. There are so many sects and ways of following the Buddha's teachings. Some entirely new religions can be said to have formed under the umbrella term of Buddhism. So many paths. It is not organised in that sense. Each individual path is organized in it's own sense. Some people might just meditate and seek to be free from suffering. Do we call them Buddhists?
I think everyone deep down "knows that they don't know". The difference is that gnostic agnostic ADMITS he/she doesn't know.
Practical atheist, or apatheist if you prefer. Basically, I believe that the existence (or lack) of a God doesn't make a difference in my way of seeing things and my values. I wouldn't act differently if you proved me God existed (or not).
I don't think there is an anthropomorphized creater god like the major religions believe. I believe that the entire universe, including us, is god. So religion is meaningless. Either that, or there is no god.
Agnostic atheist. I am agnostic because I am uncertain. I am atheist because I am no longer a theist, I practice no sort of it, and generally do not want to have any association with any of the varieties of theism. I find the arguments in support of them to be unsubstantial, at best. And there are many things stated by theists that are simply in contradiction to things that we actually do know. Which to me, does not instill trust for other claims made as well. I've pondered it a lot, but now, it all just seems unbelievable to me. A security blanket that the majority of the population just does not want to let go of. My personal opinions aside, I have no absolute proof that none of these religions are correct. Then again, claims are supposed to be proven by the person making them, not disproven by others. But I digress. I am a mere human, and I have no way of proving that there is indeed no sort of deity somewhere within this universe.
I guess I'm another agnostic atheist. Do I know? No. Do I believe? Because I don't know, I can't definitively say that I believe. I was raised in the church and have attended pretty much all my life. At one time, I was 100% on board with it but, being a late bloomer, it took me until I was in my late 30's to start questioning things. Once you see the gaping holes in logic in Christianity (and other religions, for that matter), you can't unsee them. But, do I KNOW for certain? Nope, sure don't. PS-I really like what I've learned about Buddhism. A lot of it makes way more sense than an invisible guy in the sky manipulating events here on Earth.