@Fido,
Sidenote: I'll never cease to be amazed at how disconnected such theological discussions become. It's almost unavoidable.
Everyone who holds a particular theist view has in their head a vision of that this deity is. As an example, put 6 people in a room and toss out the most ambiguous, under-defined, relativistic term you can to them and tell them to write down their definition. Something like this:
"Ok class, without clarification, please describe a 'thing'"[INDENT]Bill describes a Chicken
Sally describes a Doorknob
Jake describes a dirt-clod
Mary describes her dog
Mandy describes his TiVo
Buzz describes a boomerang
[/INDENT]Now have them debate the existence of the 'thing' without defining it. One shouts "It can be anything you want!", another says "Its beyond doubt that it has four legs" and so on. A lack of any common definition makes meaningful 'existence/existence' a debacle; juxtaposed and conflicted with deep emotional overtones in which conflict inevitably arises.
One would almost necessarily have to give a definition first, then debate or relate to
that as a topic of discussion.
Just some random thoughts I thought I'd bring up. Thanks