If a first year law student is lucky, a professor will announce in an early course that the purpose of law school is to teach you to "think like a lawyer." That means many things, but, for me, anyway, one thing it means is appending "for purposes of..." to every assertion.

"Does God exist," you ask? "For purposes of what?" I reply. What God, specifically, is the atheist or agnostic denying or fence sitting about? The God of creation? That God answers the question of the uncaused cause (to the satisfaction of those making that argument), but that is the only question He answers. That God may be the one described by James Joyce as withdrawn, paring his fingernails. Do I even care whether that God exists? If he isn't going to do anything with respect to my decisions, why should I give Him a second thought?

I resist labels, so I have no stake in being an "atheist" or an "agnostic." For purposes of conducting my affairs, I have not seen enough evidence that God cares what I do for His arguable wishes to affect my decisions. Is there a name for that posture? Should there be?