What It Means To Be An Atheist

 Q: "How do you respond to someone genuinely asking why you're an Atheist 🙏"

---
A:
I explain how the word "god" (with or without a capital "G") doesn't really describe the subject.

It only vaguely describes how a speaker feels about a subject.

"God" is not a specific type of entity.
The word "god" is not like the words "Leprechaun", "Faery", or "Vampire". Those words are reasonably specific.

The conceptualized subject in the word "god" is a blank space. Here, the speaker mentally injects whatever they have in mind.

No matter how a speaker is filling in that space,
that concept is not made known to a listener merely by using the word "god".

It just means whatever the speaker wants it to mean.

This is part of the reason I don't identify as an "atheist".

The meaning of the term "atheist" depends on the meaning of "theist";
which depends on the meaning of the term "god".

"God" doesn't mean anything until an individual assigns defining characteristics.

We can't even get past that problem by saying "whatever is worshipped", because even the word "worship" is too vague to be meaningful without context.

The same problem arises for a word like "divine".

CAKE can be divine.

It's just romantic language for anything that, via our senses (and/or via our imagination) induces a sense of euphoria and purpose. In that moment,
we have a mentally active "relationship" with Cake. 

In that moment,
our "purpose" is to enjoy the idea of returning again to that bliss, and to share the Good News of that hope with others. 

The word "divine", like "God", is an entirely emotional expression.

So instead of saying "I don't believe that any god(s) exist(s)",
I can just say "There isn't anything I call a god (or "God").

From here, we can begin to have a meaningful conversation.

From there, I explain that the word "God" (especially when we capitalize it) is a "crown of words".

Sagan was right.
We need much sharper language.

Nobody should be using a word like "god" (or "God"). 

So then, this reveals a critical failing of both self-identified "theists" and equally for self-identified "atheists". 

So then, let's have that sharper conversation. 

The sparkly bits of a word like "God" are made entirely of grand emotions; such as hope for a "happily ever after",
fear (as a type of awe),
comfort,
euphoria,
epic grandeur (as the opposite type of awe),
and a damaged (but healable) need to be forever-parented.

For many, it's also a deeply seated desire to "lick the boot" of authority.

For many, it's also the idea of a Powerful Cosmic Dad who will beat up all the kids in the neighborhood who don't want to join their special-people clubhouse.

Any technical descriptors we choose to use to define it (such as personhood, size, location, super-powers, political ambitions, etc.) ... are really just the wire-frame people use; so they can have something conceptually solid to glue their own emotional gems onto.

It's also a crafted and evolved "complex viral memetic".
This is why "the unchanging God" is so ever-changing.
Like any virus, it must adapt to each culture and host, to survive and spread to others within (and adjacent to) those cultures.

It also functions as a puppet king; which mental ventriloquists speak through.
  
It's crafted that way, so that unscrupulous humans can speak and rule as Wizards ... in the OZ of every captive-mind's universe.

For those captured minds,
it is also an alternate identity and a mask for a human's ego.

This becomes especially problematic for people who have Major Personality Disorders.

There is no more dangerous "Naricissist's Mask" than a "Humble human channeling the voice and will of [an unquestionable and perfect authority]".

There is no more dangerous platform upon which a covert predator stands than the platform of "Heavenly-approved agent for an unquestionable authority";
especially over a flock of sheeple who imagine that a perfect parent has appointed that wolve to protect them and their children.

For most people, "God" is a partitioned and hijacked part of their own mind.

It's a mysterious "Someone" other humans define and give 'voice' to.

Hijacked minds have been prevented from accurately recognizing "Him".

Whereas, pantheism is just "sexed-up atheism". In that context, it is just how someone feels about nature.

Meanwhile, Deism is just the basic idea that a super-Someone crafted our universe, stopped giving a crap about it, and cannot be otherwise "known".
 
There are many other meanings for "god" (or "God"). But they always boil down to how someone FEELS about (and thus, how they relate to) a real or imagined concept.
With all of that in mind, 
the reasons I don't call anything "God" is because:
1.
 I don't feel those kinds of ways about anything. 

Even if someone were to CONVINCE ME that our Universe (and/or our world, or our species) had an "intelligent and willful designer", "prime mover", and "purposer", ...
 I still wouldn't FEEL romantically "word-crowning" ways about it.

2. 
Even if I did feel those ways about anything, I'd be more ethically responsible with my use of language.

I would not want my meaning misunderstood;
ESPECIALLY since that misunderstanding would carry a great risk of accidentally being misunderstood as endorsing the foundational premise upon which predatory religions prey. 

Thus, I would not use the word "God" for anything. 
Thus, I would not use the word "theist". 
Thus, I have no use for a word like "atheist" either.