Agnosticism the ‘only rational choice’

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Dear Editor,
I was pleased to hear Richard Dawkins on the Daily Stoic contradicting his earlier declaration of being an atheist (one who disbelieves or denies the existence of a god) (RSA Weekly, 13 September 2024). He has now classified himself as an agnostic verging on atheism.
Dawkins had previously, as a declared atheist, unreasonably asked, on a scale of one to 10, where agnostics place their probability of the existence of god. 
The argument put by some atheists to support their belief is that the concept of a god (however defined) is unsupported by any falsifiable evidence and is too extraordinary to be true. This is perhaps based on the ‘Sagan standard’ that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
While this is true, it does nothing to support atheists’ belief in the absence of a god.
The scientists in Isaac Newton’s time supported the belief that time and linear dimensions were constant. So any claim to the contrary would be similarly extraordinary. 
This was generally accepted as conforming to evidence available at that time until Albert Einstein showed that both time and linear dimension, while constant within a frame of reference, were variable in spacetime.
The same could be said of the atheist’s belief in the absence of a god. To me, the only rational choice is that of an agnostic.
Michael White
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