I think that (this is my personal take) in order for god to exist it must be POSSIBLE for him to exist. There are thus constraints on his nature (his nature can't be IMPOSSIBLE aka CONTRADICTORY). Thus... Reflection on Gods nature can help us get clearer on gods nature.

I'm agnostic as to whether God exists, truth be told.

When I see people say 'God is x' and x contains a contradiction then I'm an athiest about that particular God...

The arguments for and against the existence of God...
I personally find them to stack about equally either way. That leads me to conclude (just my personal opinion) that whether one believes in God or not is not a matter of reason, it is a matter of faith.

But, once again, if people define God in a way that is contradictory then I'm an atheist about that particular God...

Considering the arguments for and against can help one get clearer on the possible Gods that could exist that are potential candidates for one to have faith in, however.

I think you do get extremists on both sides...
People who have faith who define God in a way that is contradictory...
People who don't have faith who are unreasonably hostile / resistent...
And I think that both kinds of people feed off each other and keep the other camp in their implausible extremist position (I do not at all mean to say that anyone here is in either of those two camps, but I think it is something that does tend to happen).

'Intelligent Design' is an interesting notion... Upon examination there are a lot of related notions / claims that are in the vicinity...

One notion would be to deny evolution by natural selection.
(aka to maintain that god made all the species individually they didn't evolve from a common anscestor)
One notion would be to be make a claim about how old the earth is.

Another notion (the one I have some sympathy with) is the idea that there is a supernatural being who caused the first event in the natural world. Thats about as far as I'm willing to take the intelligent design hypothesis.