Originally Posted by Suburbanite

I agree that the prefix "a" means without. But it doesn't mean opposite, it doesn't mean "not", and it doesn't mean "anti". It means without. Without theism. Other words that use a? Amoral. To be amoral is not the same as to be immoral. Whats the difference? Its consideration. For an act to be immoral, it means it is within the context of morality, and on the "negative" side of the spectrum. That is to say, being immoral is ackowledging a particular relationship with morality as a system. Amorality, however, is a lack of consideration towards the context of morality. For example, a rock lodges lose and falls from a mountain hitting someone on the head and killing them. That rock's actions were not immoral, the rock is not subject to morality, the dilemma is not a moral one..... the rock is amoral.
When a person goes through his day to day life he is presented with dilemmas as well. When these dilemmas arise one can be a theist about it... that is to say, to react with a Christian or other theological perspective when interpreting the said dilemma. Or, one can be an atheist. To be an atheist doesn't mean one solves the dilemma in the context of "not theist", or the context of "antitheist". One solves it in an atheistic context... which specifically means one thing, that this person is not considering a theistic context to put his aforementioned dilemma into.
An atheist does not REJECT or DENOUNCE theism, an Atheist does not consider it as a viable interpretation to any event. To be an atheist one does not have to claim "god does not exist" one merely has to assert that they don't think in terms of theism... they dont think about sin, or nirvana, or god, or prayer. It mentions nothing specific about the nature of what the DO think, only what they aren't thinking.
I fear you misinterpreted me, which is my own fault, and you thought i was saying that someone who is unexposed to theism is the definition of an atheist, which I didn't mean to insinuate.