It seems to me that someone could quite consistently hold the following position:
“Atheist” means “lacking positive belief in any god or gods”. You can be an atheist without thinking the existence of gods is vanishingly improbable, or indeed without giving any thought at all to probabilities. I, as it happens, do prefer to think in probabilities when possible. Exactly what I think about the existence of God depends a great deal on how you define God, and it might be anywhere from “vanishingly unlikely” to “somewhat unlikely”, or in many cases “I can’t answer that question because it’s not clear enough what it means”. But, whatever way you pose the question, I don’t positively believe in any sort of god, and it’s therefore appropriate to call me an atheist.
It seems to me that someone could quite consistently hold the following position: