First of all, I think that something which is often missed needs to be pointed out, and that is that the designation of "soft" or "hard" atheist only actually means anything within the context of some specific definition of god, or within some specific class of definitions of god.
For example, with respect to all of the gods worshipped by any of the religions throughout history that I know of, I am a hard atheist. That is, I believe that these gods are man-made fictional characters, and simply do not exist. With respect to some of the more philosophically oriented definitions, such as the definition of god as the first cause or some such, I am a soft atheist. With respect to incoherent definitions of god, or conceptions of god I have never even heard of, the question is moot. There is no meaningful claim there for me to have or lack belief in.
I think this is a point many people miss. When somebody says that they are a hard atheist, they usually are not claiming that every conception of god anybody ever has, or ever will come up with, does not exist. That would not even be coherent. What they are usually saying is that they believe that the various conceptions of god which they have heard of, and which they consider to actually be worthy of being called gods, do not exist. There is an important difference.
That said, I would say that there is a continuum between soft and hard atheism. When I say I believe something, that just means I think that it is very probably true. How likely I think it is to be true, is another question. There is no magical threshold. If I am confident enough that something is true, I will say I believe it. If I am not, then I wont. There is a huge gray area in between.
Dr. Stupid
