Yes an no. A Christian could certainly say they were atheistic about a non Abrahamic god but they couldn't say they were 'an atheist'.
By your definition dependent on specificity they could...it is simply a matter of context.
The etymological use of the word and whether it was used as an insult or not is irrelevant to it's meaning (which is simply 'without god').
No, the (Without God) is the etymology, as in it is derived from the French Athéiste which in turn was drawn from
atheos which is a construction relating to ungodly or Godless or abandoned by the Gods (rather than simply Without God, atheos is actually
Not God or
No God rather than
without in Koine Greek).
It is often misunderstood, but just because a word can be de constructed into it's constituent derivatives doesn't mean that it is simply those derivatives added together.
But by definition everyone then is agnostic (as I said earlier) because no one can claim to KNOW either way.
People do claim to know or they attribute truth values in a definitive way, the way those values are attributed define whether you are Theist or Atheist...an Agnostic simple doesn't attribute a truth value to either position as the value is simply unknown.
Even Richard Dawkins admits on many occasion he cannot conclusively say there is no God and does not claim to absolutely KNOW there isn't one but would you call him an agnostic?
As I said, it is about attributing or assigning a truth factor to each position.
This is my point, anyone that claims they definitely know for certain a god or gods exists or not is lying. So that kind of makes your definition of agnostic rather useless in a practical sense.
As I have said, Atheism and to some degree Agnosticism are very broad terms and can be defined in any number of ways. It is why these conversations get mired in semantics all to often.
When I tell people I'm an atheist, they shouldn't think "That means he can categorically deny the existence of a god",they should think "Oh he just doesn't prey, worship a god, or accept religious tales about them are likely to be true".
If someone tells me they are an atheist (in isolation) I take that to mean simply that they do not believe in any kind of God(s), not that they deny anything or anyone...however if someone tells me they are an atheist and that theists are wrong, then have altered the context and therefore the definition of the term to include the denial of God(s) and I would compose any reply taking those factors into consideration.
As an Agnostic (Ignostic more specifically) I simply do not attribute a value to either position relative to each other...I neither actively believe or disbelieve, I simply think the question "Is there a God" to be unknown and therefore unanswered. I will debate the wheres and whathaveyous but as you have probably seen in these types of threads, the Theists call me an Atheist, the Atheists call me a Theist..in reality I am neither, I simply debate from a neutral position. (as far as belief in God is concerned)
