An atheist for president?

Today's Washington Post published a posting in their "On Faith" blog titled "An Atheist for President?" This was my response:

What is an atheist?
Someone who doesn't believe in God?
That's what he's not.
So what is he?
I'm stumped, honestly. Because the word has no actual definition. All it tells you is what someone isn't--which is of interest only to religious people. For the rest of us, our so-called "lack of religion" is completely irrelevant to our lives. It means nothing, nada, zip. I also don't believe the world is flat. But I don't go around saying I'm an, say, "antiflatulist." If someone asks me what I believe, I simply say I'm an empiricist. Now that actually says something about me. A lot, actually.
The word "atheist" was coined by religious people. It's a loaded term. Calling me an "atheist" is pretty much the same as calling a black person the N word. How about if we start calling religious people "antiempiricists?" Or "realityphobes?" I'm not seriously proposing that, because it would be as unfair as it is for religious people to call those who aren't atheists. Personally I define people as interesting or not, as jerks or OK people--stuff like that. Now those terms are actually useful.