Wait what's the difference between Atheist, No response, and Nothing?
Also why is there a generic Christian but then also Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox? But then they just Muslim and not it's different denominations? Why even have different denominations when you have the generic catch all and the Other category?
Also unfair in the questioning. From my own experience im going to assume the person speaking at the campus is someone yelling how all are damned and calling women whores. Sadly, very few people other than atheists speak up.
Atheism are people who are activly against religion. Nothing are Irreligious people I assume. No Response are those who's religious identity are unknown. Could be any of the others or none of them.
Generally: atheists are those that say there are no gods and no goddesses. Agnostics tend to be more on the fence about it, making no claim either way.
But, as a rule, neither requires that someone is "against religion".
Just so you're aware, agnosticism and gnosticism are not the same. Wouldn't go calling anyone semi-educated and then use the wrong term, if I were you.
Agnosticism is the opposite of gnosticism. It's "not knowing" vs "knowing". Theism and atheism is "belief" or "not believing". Take me for instance, I'm an Agnostic Thiest. I believe there is a God, but I don't claim to know.
In the late 00s there was a New Atheism movement which was more than just not being religious, sometimes called "capital-A atheism." People conflate that with normal atheism sometimes. That movement split in the 2010s as culture war became more of a thing.
Am atheist. Am not actively against religion. If it makes your life better and is also benefiting others (or at least its not a negative), have at it. I do not give a shit.
Yeah, I don't find any religion I've ever run across appealing, but I have no beef with those who do good under the umbrella of their religion and don't try to beat on others with it.
Atheist is literally "not theist" which would include nothing, none, agnostic (the belief that it's impossible to determine the existence or absence of, in this context, God). It could even be argued that people who believe in God but do not participate in theistic practices (eg lapsed Catholics) are atheists. It does not require or even imply some position against religion.
This isn't accurate though. In the most semantic, etymological sense perhaps. But atheism is widely understood to be the disbelief in deities. Agnosticism and atheism are very different. One is a position of belief (I cannot prove god doesn't exist, but I don't believe it to be so) and one is a position of ignorance (I cannot prove god does exist or doesn't exist).
Words, meanings and definitions are defined by who is interpreting them. This therefore means that the definition is whatever the majority believes it to be.
You may as well be looking at a field of flowers and describing them as gay. It may have been the appropriate term once, but it is not now. And we live now.
The etymology of the term is not the same as the meaning of the term.
Sitting there and prescribing that your interpretation of the term is the correct interpretation reminds me a lot of the tale of King cnut.