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I think Richard Dawkins has put atheism back in the public consciousness in a big way, which is why we're seeing people jumping aboard. Without wanting to disparage anyone's particular belief, I can't say that I think it's a bad thing, but I wished I believed they were doing it because they'd really thought about it.
Agnosticism is interesing in itself since what you're basically saying you can't prove or disprove the existence of god, so belief is impossible. But you also can't prove or disprove the existence of allsorts of other things that are nevertheless unreasonable to believe in, such as hobbits, elves, fairies, men on mars, Cthulhu, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
So to be agnostic about god is to be agnostic about anything we don't have direct evidence for. If you, as an agnostic, accept that it's unreasonable to believe in hobbits, then why not god? If you then go on to accept that it's unreasonable to believe in god, then you're pretty much an atheist.
It's also worth pointing out, I think, that absolute atheism is as much a position of 'faith' as hardline theism is, since I don't think we can honestly discount the possibility of a god.
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