Chris,
Why not this?
> 1. One to mean agnosticism
"agnosticism"
> 2. One to mean positive belief that God (or Gods or gods or "the" gods,
> etc.) does not exist.
"atheism"
("Antitheism" sounds to me simply like opposition to God, rather than one
who thinks that "not-theism" is true, which is etymologically fairly
direct.)
> 3. One to mean lack of belief in God, *regardless* of whether
> this takes the
> form of agnosticism, mere lack of interest in the issue (which, I suppose,
> would be technically a form of agnosticism), or a positive denial
> of God (or
> gods, etc.).
"unbelief", or ideally but more clumsily, "non-belief".
I don't see anything -logically- hanging in the balance here, so far as
Craig or any other arguments go, where the burden of proof lies, etc.
But I think using "atheist" in the broadest sense some dictionary would
support (NB, not the -typical- sense the dictionaries report, nor typical
philosophical or ordinary usage, in my experience) is going to confuse
people and be seen by some as a bit slippery -- "what else is he trying to
slip by me??".
Of course, if you make clear what sense of "atheism" you're using -- as you
have -- this confusion is avoided. But it may take some seriously uphill
persuasion to get everyone else to go along with your lexically permissible
but nonetheless atypical usage.
If the "a" in "atheism" were typically taken simply to negate the belief
(one has "no belief in God"), then your usage would be standard. Instead it
typically negates the object of belief (one believes there is "no God").
John
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