An atheist’s typical claim is simple: there is no god.
A theist’s typical claim, on the other hand, is a little more complex: there is a god, and he is exactly like I think he is, wants what I think he wants, and hates what I think he hates.
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I disagree: the athiest claim may be correct because of the general vagueness it carries, but the claim about theists is too narrow to include all religious peoples and could be seen as stereotyping.
Caesium: well, I haven’t seen many theists claim something to the effect of: “I believe there is some god out there, but I have no idea of what he is like, or what, if anything, he wants us to do.”
That would be a start though.
Caesium, the athiest claim of “There is no god” doesn’t seem that vague to me.
The problem is that you can’t build a religion based on “I don’t know” (what God wants, is like, etc.). It would attract virtually no followers.
On the contrary, every religious founder or leader claims absolute, “special” knowledge about God and his desires…
The theist’s claim of knowledge of a “god” existing necessitates knowing something, if not almost everything, about the nature of that entity. The claim becomes meaningless without some substance, without the knowledge of at least the core characteristics which would constitute a “god.” This means that there really cannot be a theist position which amounts to “I know that there is a god, but I don’t know anything about it.”