What is Ignosticism?

[robvalue]

You can't really compare the chair argument here.
No-one cares what type of chair. The type of chair is usually completely irrelevant to the story.
We all know what the general function of a chair is ... Because it is real. We all have and use one.

When a theist starts on about God, he had me at  "what the fuck are you on about now!"
God is no chair. He wishes!

Exactly. Chairs are indisputably real, there are millions of clear examples, and they share one specific quality: they are designed to be sat on. When someone asks me a question about a chair, details are very easy to deal with when they are important, but if they aren’t mentioned, there is no doubt what is being asked about. Gods share no such universally agreed quality, nor is it clear what makes something a god rather than just a "really powerful thing".

I should add that ignosticism is a technical position, and I’d use it only when suitable. If some random person asks me a quick question and it’s not going to lead anywhere, I’ll just say I’m an atheist. If however someone is looking to have a proper debate with me, then it’s important to nail down definitions immediately. They are going to later refer to my answers, and I don’t want them to piss me about. I need to know what question I’m answering, and I need a definition so that the theist doesn’t keep switching what "god" means during the discussion. In my experience, this is almost certain to happen.

It’s actually a charitable position for me to hold. I’m giving the theist a chance to be clear, I’m giving their idea possible merit and a platform, and I’m giving them the mental exercise of defining a word they have probably never even tried to define before. The alternative is for me to assume they are talking about a complete load of shit, an imaginary friend that happens to agree with them, that has attributes which morph depending on what part of the conversation we are at. I’m still better than everyone, but I like giving people a fair chance.