For me there’s no problem with tying agnosticism to atheism. Agnostic comes from the Greek word agnostos, which means unknowable. One of the core concepts to most atheists is that there’s no way to prove or disprove the existence of a deity. Basically, most atheists agree that it’s unknowable, which makes them all agnostic.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read Dawkins… but I’m pretty sure it was in the God Delusion where he took some time to hash out the ideas of “agnostic atheists” and “atheist agnostics.” There are those who don’t mind the idea of a god and those who do. But the unifying truth for them both is that they acknowledge you can never be sure. It is unknowable.
Atheism is a spectrum like everything else in life. The difference between Agnostic and Atheist is really whether you believe in your heart that there might be a god or not. We all have a different place where we land on that line, but when it comes down to it, we’re all agnostic at heart. We have all rejected religion (at least for ourselves).
Although, that brings up another spectrum, which leads to some fun thought processes. Dawkins was a big supporter of gathering for mass. He saw great benefit in bringing the community together and practicing rituals that bonded and unified people. He also loved religious hymns (which are just music written by some of the greatest composers of their time).
I think websites like this where we all gather together to try and connect and correspond with each other show our need for that sort of thing. And some atheist communities have started regular gatherings to offer the same sort of “spiritual” connections that religion offers.
One more interesting thought I had while reading your post is that being an atheist doesn’t mean you’re automatically more ethical or not… While this is true, it still does come down to a bit of a percentage game again. Some of the best people I know are religious. But the number of times I’ve had someone question what stops me from doing evil without a god to punish me is severely concerning. It’s truly a terrifying thought that the only thing keeping some people from killing, raping and pillaging, is the fragile thought that some invisible power might punish them for it.
A new algorithm was entered into our mainframe to help persuade us all to join a new website. In the control universe, life is going on as normal.