[KikoSanchez]

Originally Posted by Hare_Geist

I think that the many ideas labelled god are very easy to delineate. But if I want to treat god as more than just a sound-pattern linked by numerous people to numerous concepts, then things become very difficult. For it seems that I cannot define it by the similarities between the concepts conventionally labelled god within cultures and subcultures, since they are so diverse: for example, some say that god created everything, while others say that it did not create anything, but that it is everything. So perhaps the solution, then, is to move away from the internal definitions and toward the external functions. God would then quite quickly appear to many as an active presence that delimits the possible. But here I worry about interpretation problems, as indicated here.

For the reasons expressed, I am hesitant about using the term atheist for myself. Certainly, I do not believe in the Abrahamic deity or Brahman, but to call myself an atheist, when it now comes with so many connotations, and when I may reject god as anything specific but a sound-pattern, I find problematic. To prevent confusion, rather than tell people I am an atheist, I would much rather ask them what they mean when they use the word god, unless it is blatantly obvious, and then evaluate them individually.

You sound sort of like an ignostic (no, I don't mean agnostic).