Best Theistic Arguments

[Whateverist]

Making the positive case that 'god' -as if you or anyone else knew what this word refers to- does not exist, will just allow them to turn all your best points agains you.  Much better to stick to insisting that terms be defined and then challenge the legitimacy of the supernatural.  If not even one noncontroversial exemplar of anything supernatural can be produced, then that set can safely be assumed to be empty.

So basically, your advice is to play semantic games and argue over the meaning of words. That sounds more like sophistry than reasoned debate. It is the attempt to shift the debate away from the question of "that something is" to "what something is". It is a dishonest tactic. There is nothing of which anyone has complete knowledge. We are constantly learning and that is every bit true in theology as it is the natural sciences and mathematics.

It may seem so from your current point of view. But expecting someone to defend the position that the special something you have in mind but can't produce does not exist, is pretty presumptuous. I don't care if your figment exists or doesn't exist. As you know I have a perfectly natural explanation to satisfy myself I know what it is that you and gazillions of others before you are on about. The possibility that the explanation involves something from the supernatural zone, to my sensibility, is laughable. But you go ahead and pat yourself on the back about the sincerity you are eager to bring to the debate you so want to have. I simply am not interested in discussing literal gods.