Agnostics

[Thumpalumpacus]

Learn to accept language for what it is, don't try and reinvent the wheel.

The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. words can and do have connotations as well as denotations; they can also have shades of meaning that are dependent upon context.

If I'm understanding Benny correctly, he's agnostic in the sense that those times he might believe in god(s) and those times he doesn't are close enough in frequency that he can't really decide for himself. (If I've misstated your position, Benny, please accept my apologies).

Badgering someone to change the way they think of themselves on the basis of your definition of them is not likely to do much more than set his heels in, in my experience.

I really detest the antipathy some atheists display regarding agnostics. Agnosticism is simply someone following the reasoning they find more compelling than yours. If the only case you can make for your point is linguistic, I think that shows less about the person under discussion and more about the limitations of language, which does not -- and cannot -- describe most things even close to perfectly. When the thing being described is as complex as a person's view on deity, the language is truly beggared. This tail-chasing seems to me to be strong evidence of that.