Color preference isn't a belief, it's an emotional response to information brought to us through our senses. And it is potentially the subject of scientific research. So, I don't think you're analogy holds.

And there's nothing arbitrary or nonsensical about it, although you could say it's subjective, like feeling pain.


"Surely the sense or nonsense of a definition depends at least in part on how one seeks to apply that definition."

No, it depends completely on how one arrives at that definition.

In the case of "transcendence," we don't even know there is something to define, let alone how to define it. It's completely arbitrary.

Color preference, on the other hand, is an observable phenomenon.


"Logically, at the most basic level, what’s the difference between positively affirming and positively denying the existence of a thing we cannot possibly observe or assess?"

No difference. But it's a false dichotomy. As I said before, the rational response to nonsense is to point out that it's nonsense, not join in the game.