"I can pretty easily fathom why both believers and atheists believe how they do. Each is seeing things through their particular filters that colorizes the question of God into their respective belief structures. Both are looking at the God question, and coming out with a different take on the same question."
You insist on calling it a "question of God". You can't understand that it's not about god, it's about belief. The discussion would be the same if we'd talk about alien abduction.
Beliefs about God are theological views. You cannot say you believe God does not exist, if you have no idea of how others define God. You are starting with a picture of God, which makes it theological. Theology is what gives you the starting definition.
You can't just say you reject beliefs, if those beliefs have no content (they wouldn't be beliefs if that were true). You would say, "I don't understand the question here". But you do understand the question. And your answer to the question is, it doesn't add up for you. You're working with a theological view, and that is what you question as being true or not.
I realized that "god" is a word without meaning. So the question has no meaning.
What you say here is senseless. Of course it has meaning. Otherwise you could never say you don't believe it. I've never heard anyone claim the word God has no meaning. It's in the damn dictionary!
It obviously has meaning in order for it to appear there.
I think what you mean to say is it has no
value to you. That's a very different thing. Traditional theistic theologies of God aren't believed in or have value to a great many folks, myself included. There's a great saying I think fits in here. "The God you don't believe in, doesn't exist".
I don't have an image of god. Believers may or may not have one.
Your denialism here is amazing to me. All believers in God, and all non-believers in God, have to have an image of God they are working with to either believe in or not believe in. It's incredibly simple to understand. If you said to me, "Do you believe X is real", and then never tell me what X is, my response would be obvious, "I can't affirm belief or disbelief in something if I don't have any idea of what it is you are asking me".
But if you then explained the meaning of what X stands for, then I have a mental image of it to now examine and give you my opinion about it. And that you claim to have no idea of what God means, about how people believe about God, then you are being flatly dishonest, first with yourself. You would never identify as an atheist, if you had no idea what God means in people's beliefs. Why would you? That would be ridiculous. Do you ever weigh in with your opinion on things when you have no idea what others mean by them?
Most think they have one but buckle when questioned. And when they have one it is an individual one that has no resemblance to the next one's. Talking about god with believers is a game of "I think of a thing ...".
Considering there are entire institutions centered around beliefs in God, you obviously have some degree of general consensus going on there. Obviously, there are difference in how individuals interpret it, but that is true of any and all commonly held beliefs, regardless of the nature of them. If you are going to say those differences equal nobody believing the same things, then that applies to 100% of everything everyone believes. No two are 100% alike, on any topic.