Ignosticism, Theism, or Gnostic Atheism

[Angrboda]

Ignosticism (per Wikipedia):

Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the word "God" has no coherent and unambiguous definition

Someone asked about whether the definition of God is incoherent or unambiguous. Those are radically different things. Incoherent is a problem, but one that need be demonstrated. Unambiguous is something else. In general though, people believe things with vague boundaries all the time. Language itself might be viewed as a process of using words whose definition is unclear and unfixed to communicate clear ideas. The vagueness of God need not be an issue for the believer. However it can become an issue when one is trying to communicate an idea of god or persuade someone about God. I think the notion that in those cases one needs an unambiguous definition of God are incorrect. All that is required is a shared usage so that what is being communicated is clear and unambiguous. The principle of charity is important here. If someone is talking about God being a necessary being, one need not have unambiguous definitions about God's perfection or his moral authority, as those are not at issue. We can come to partial agreement about God without an unambiguously complete definition of God. We do so with things all the time. As noted on this forum, there is no unambiguous definition of what a chair is, but we don't consider that a bar to talking about and believing in chairs. Many things are like this. We have no such definition for knowledge or truth or morality, but we don't therefore take the uncharitable stance that any discussion of these things is nonsense on account of that lack. The human mind is built for vague predicates. I think to a degree ignosticism, more than being a stance based on an innocent mistake, can become simply a refuge when one lacks better ideas about God than others. To an extent, that's why I am agnostic about many things these days. Not that I don't have doubts and intuitions, but that I recognize that the ideas I have on such subjects are insufficient to resolve them. I tend to have a less charitable opinion of asserting ignosticism in the same way, though.