Quote:
Is there no room for pneumatology--study of the spirit?


Part of the trouble is that pneumatology has been plagued by so much hot air that the definition "the study of flatulence" may not be entirely undeserved.

Atheists tend to level much of their criticism against religions, rather than against the concept of God. Religions do tend to make themselves easy targets.

Your posts suggest that you like to have a scientific basis for your beliefs. Perhaps people with theological inclinations should give more thought to establishing what they know, rather than just what they believe.

Here are some thoughts on a possible starting point for a sort of "liberated" catechism.

What do we know about God?
Nothing.

Is there anything we can deduce that would be relevant to the question of God?
Yes; there can never have been a time when there was nothing, or there would still be nothing now.
It follows that something must always have existed; i.e. something is eternal.
Eternity is usually defined as “infinite time”, but, as with all examples in the infinite series, this is no more than a “mathematical” convenience, which bears no relation to physical infinity/eternity.
Science has not provided a viable explanation for the origin of the cosmos, as distinct from the Universe. The most logical conclusion is that the cosmos is infinite/eternal. I stress that it is only a tentative start.

There never was nothing.