A pantheistic argument.

[The Grand Nudger]

Yes, but synonyms don't necessarily have identical meaning, they can have similar meaning. It was my understanding that merely one definition of god is "deity", maybe I was wrong there but it doesn't change my point. If god means the same thing as deity then I guess believing god is the universe would equate to believing god is a deity. I thought, you see, that "deity" is "god" in the sense of "supernatural being, especially a creator of the universe" - and if "deity" means that then it's not the same as "god" because some forms of pantheism define "god" as "the universe" and the universe is not a deity in the sense of a supernatural being.

The word "deity" derives from the Latin "dea"-"goddess", and "deus"-"god"

A deity can be natural or supernatural.

Your explanation here is a longer way of saying "not that kind of deity..not that kind of god", nevertheless it is a diety or a god..and you have explicitly defined it as such. Again, people describe or define their gods in many, many ways. If describing a god differently than someone else does qualifies one as an atheist then we are all atheists.

No, it's not about what label we choose it's about what we actually believe.

Right, and if those beliefs contain at least one god..no matter what attributes you give it or how you describe it...

If I call myself an atheist that wouldn't make me one if I believed in god.

Right, but you do, correct? If you don't, then perhaps you just "believe" that the universe exists..and that leads me to ask you why you deigned to call it god in the first place?

My point is that when I'm a pantheist I believe in the exact same thing as when I'm an atheist.

Not if you're calling that thing a god.

My beliefs are identical.

I think your beliefs are confused.

In both cases I am merely believing in the universe.

Which is god.

The fact that I label the universe "god" in one case and don't in another makes no difference if I'm actually believing in the exact same thing.

I think that it would make a hell of alot of difference if we were interested in consistency.

If there is no difference in the actual belief then they can't be different because the very definition of the difference between theism and atheism is completely dependent upon the difference in belief.

In god....which you believe in, yes?

If there is no difference in belief therefore, there is no difference. The label of "atheism" and "theism" is different if you define them that way, but what they actually are and what they actually refer to is no different if all the differences that their very definition is dependent upon is completely removed.

You don't seemed to have removed god in the argument you offered.....

If someone defines Jesus Christ as "a chicken" that doesn't make them a christian if they can believe in chickens just like non-Christian can. If non-Christians also believe in chickens, if Jesus is a chicken and if Christians' belief in Christianity therefore depends on believing in that definition of Jesus being "a chicken" then how are Christians any more Christian than non-Christians, if the very definition of Christianity (and therefore also non-Christianity) both depend upon there being a difference of belief and/or non-belief between the two? It's not about the label, it's about the belief. If the belief is the same, it's the same thing. The label doesn't change what you believe exists. You're not an atheist because you choose to label yourself that way, you're an atheist because of what you believe. If all the atheists on this forum started defining "god" as a carrot it wouldn't actually change their atheism because it wouldn't actually change their belief/non-belief and the very definition of atheism is about belief/non-belief. Atheists cannot change from atheists to theists without changing what they actually don't or do believe.

If all the atheists started defining god as a carrot and professing belief in it they would be theists. They still wouldn't be christians, but they would definitively be theists........to suggest otherwise is to rob the two terms of any meaning whatsoever.

Atheism, no god.
Theism, at least one god.

Theists are not theists because they choose to label themselves that way, they're theists because of what they believe.

Correct, again, a belief in at least one god. a belief that you share (even though you describe your god differently than they describe theirs).

If every single definition of "god" is "deity" including the pantheistic definition of god being "the universe", then yes.

See the above, the very word is derived from the root which translates to "god". Perhaps you should save yourself the trouble and stop calling things gods if you don't think they are gods?