Bill, you say that your "opinion is that within a specific discussion, the word 'God' needs to have an agreed on definition".

Oh, really? ;-) And who among us shall get to dictate to all the rest what that definition must be?

And if no one gets to dictate it...then how shall we reach agreement on it? And if we don't reach agreement on it, what's so terrible about that?????

The most interesting thing about discussing "God", as far as I'm concerned, is hearing what each person's unique idea or concept of God is, and getting a chance to think in depth about that. Ditto for discussing spirituality or any other such subject. Our world is enriched by the multiplicity of ideas we have about such things.

I find it desirable that we have many ways of defining "God", not threatening, and I have no wish to force other people to define God the way I might choose to. We benefit from having different views and giving fair consideration to them.

It is fear that makes people want to force other people to think the same way they do. It's a control game. I have no wish to force anyone to define God in any particular way, but I'm quite interested in hearing what anyone else thinks about God, and why they think that way. As they explain it, I get to know something about them and I may get to know something new about concepts of God too. How can that possibly be bad?