[split] Agnostic atheism is the only intellectually honest position

[Scented Nectar]

I think the above paragraph applies even more to the idea of god/God/ or gods.

People may find dictionary quoting irritating, but when it is definitions themselves that are being discussed, they really are the best way to go. I don't want to go on and on though defending why I think a collection of a few good dictionaries and Wiki thrown in for good measure are a pretty good source for unbiased, gathered/collected definitions.

I agree with Void; you can't argue against a dictionary meaning and expect it to apply to the general idea of god/God/or gods. The goalposts will shift and theists will alter their definition of the ontology of god/God/ or gods.

I don't expect it to apply to goalpost movers. I'm not even trying to apply it to vague made up stuff. Ignore button in my head is on for those cases, and there will be many. If I were to argue with them, I would say 'you are worshipping something, but it is not a god', unless of course the thing worshipped has also been assigned god traits by them, the traits being any of those god is defined as having in the dictionaries.

Burn straw men if you must, and you will probably impress more than a few simple-minded atheists; but the fact remains that the sweet smell of a god concept destroyed, is simply the smell of the opium burning in the pipe you are smoking.

I'm not out to impress, not even people who think strong atheism is simpleminded. It's purely the result of people not believing me when I tell them where I am on the atheism scale. As for destroying the god concept, maybe you meant belief rather than concept, since I don't disbelieve in concepts? There is no 'sweet smell of a god' belief in me to destroy. I never had it in the first place. I'm starting to wonder if that might be the reason I don't need to put a just-in-case disclaimer on my belief. Maybe. Is that why people seem all defensive or something? It just seems like people are too quick to tack on a 'but there's a tiny chance I could be wrong' to this one when they wouldn't do that to anything else.

Do you 'weak' atheists out there have anything at all (non supernatural stuff) that you are comfortable in your disbelief with to the point where you can positively assert your disbelief in it? Do you add disclaimers onto anything else? I'm not questioning the weakness of your belief, just whether you equally do that for everything else too.

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I like your confidence Scented Nectar but disagree with you using secular dictionaries as a source for the definition of God. I don't find those accurate at all. To address theists you need to speak the same language... which is philosophy and theology.

The only possible way is to use objectively gathered defs. The alternative would limit it to only one person's version of a god.