What is Ignosticism?

[robvalue]

No, it’s not a device for me. To answer a question accurately, I must understand what I’m being asked.

I can, of course, just decide for myself what I’m being asked and give an answer to that question. I can insert what I expect the other person is thinking about, or I can provide a multitude of possible definitions and answer each question differently.

The point is that my answer will vary depending on what someone means. It will vary significantly. I can give a breakdown of the most popular definitions I’m going to face, but even then, individual theists come up their own ideas that never quite conform to anything. I can’t stop them doing that, precisely because the word means nothing to begin with. There is no common theme to the word that isn’t disregarded by at least one popular definition.

And so, I can say I’m nominally an atheist, in that I’m most likely going to not believe in whatever you call god, statistically speaking. However, it’s not for me to tell the person what question they are asking, and there are some "Gods" I will agree do exist. It’s again not for me to play the No True Scotsman and force a person to conform to my ideas.

In summary, I’m interested in answering questions accurately, and on an individual basis. I will require extra details in every single case before I can give a meaningful answer. My disbelief, and my level of such, will vary. What I find complements this position very nicely indeed is apatheism. No one has ever given me a reason to care about any of the things people call "god". They may include something obviously real that I already care about in their definition of god, but in that case, I don’t care that they have called it "god".