O 'oh stop right there! atheism isn't based on belief its based on lack of hard evidence A-gnostic means without gnosis (which is knowledge) cut it any way you like they are the same thing. and you can believe whatever you like its a free country!

Me. I am the same thing as their god. we are all our own creations and we build ourselves, not a man in the sky

Science. There is no proof of a god, regardless of the millions of gods current, and pre-Judeo-Christian, etc. There IS some evidence of god centers in the brain which can cause that cause a feeling like god is around you. It's biological, and I would argue evolutionary, in that it kept us going and alive when all hope would otherwise have seemed lost.

When I was 6 years old, I rode my bike to a neighborhood church to attend services by myself. I listened to the sermon one day and upon leaving, the pastor stood by the door, shaking hands. I told him he was wrong about Jesus. I told him I knew Jesus and that wasn't what Jesus said or even meant. They told me not to come back. But see, I have always known Jesus in a way no religion teaches. Jesus was a world mission master, not what they said. He was a teacher, not a god. I remembered being around him in a past life. What god would allow horrible things to happen? None that claim to be forgiving or loving. No. There is no God like some Morgan Freeman or white bearded man seeing what will happen and choosing the lessons both hard and soft. I believe in an energy beyond humans, a higher power if you will, but it is the collective consciousness of us all. Like a beach and each of us a grain of sand. How we think affects that energy. I know this deeply, not like a flimsy faith, but proven to me in different ways throughout my life - like the day I woke up KNOWING something terrible had happened. I scrambled around trying to hook up a tv to an antenna to find out what was causing the deep shift in the energy field around me. It was 9/11. I felt the pain, the fear, the sorrow, the grief and shock. I felt it plainly enough to run around my home trying to figure out how to get a signal on my tv - and I was living in Boise, Idaho. I think there are many who know there is no god. I think there are many that feel there is SOMETHING, but the religious god head makes zero sense. But we are hear to learn, to experience the physical plane existence and work on the vows of mastery, right? To claim our divine inheritance - not as a gift from some god but as our own divine nature - as the grain on the beach that is the higher power of us all. That's how I know it.

After seeing from bloggers the truth about the Bible, and being an intelligent science-lover, I realize there is no evidence for magical and that the real evidence is so much more intriguing and exciting. Life now has real meaning.

You capitalized the word "god," indicating a belief in the idea that an all-powerful being could possibly exist. In that case, why has this being not revealed himself/herself in order to stop confusion? There is no evidence to show that any being currently exists or have ever existed. In the case of "Higher Powers," I assume you mean deities, in which case, what makes you believe that the greek gods don't exist? It is mythology now, a dead religion. I have no problem or anger toward a god or gods, I simply don't believe that they exist. Why do you not believe in vampires? It isn't because you hate them or that it has been completely disproved, you simply don't believe in them. Based on the scientific and empirical evidence that is out at this point, I see no evidence of a deity or celestial being existing. If the evidence changes to favor one religion more so than it favors the lack of any deity existing, I will be willing to change.

While there is no evidence of its nonexistence, the nonexistence of its evidence is overwhelming.
The universe can be explained without a single god. Occham's razor: the simplest explanation is usually correct.
Since the beginning of the scientific method, the area of nature that can be attributed to a deity continually shrinks. Eventually, there will be no room left.
We know that the vast majority of bible history never happened. Even the majority of events we aren't certain of are not supported by evidence.
Modern medical science indicates that gods do not talk to sane people. Should we assume that the religious prophets of the past were mentally stable?
For these reasons among others, I choose to believe there is no god. However, if I am proven wrong, I would like to think that I would have the moral courage to refuse to worship anything as monstrous as the christians' god.

Scorpions
Bears
Sharks
T-Rex (fortunately extinct)
Well, you get my drift...

Oh, and regarding the main question (this is my answer to a post about an article that asks if atheism would end if scientific proof of god would be discovered): Of course, irrefutable proof of the existence of god would end atheism. The real scientist should always accept the results of a solid scientific methodology, even if it goes against his or her opinions or beliefs; indeed it should change his or her beliefs. But, think about it. If we had such proof, we would know where god is and how to communicate with it. We could ask questions about all the contradictions of this world and god would have to answer them. It would no longer be possible to use that ridiculously empty notion that “god acts in misterious ways”. And then, what answers could those be? Think about it... god does not exists.

God does not exist. Of that, I can be sure of. Why? Well, we cannot prove that something does not exist. At most, we can fail to prove that it exists. Which is the state of affairs of all religions. They cannot offer any proof of the existence of their god. They just believe, and that’s fine... for them. But for me at least, it is not satisfactory enough to say that I just don’t believe in the existence of gods. That would be a ridiculously flawed position as theirs is. That is not only not satisfactory... it is not acceptable. But we have reason. In fact, if we did not have reason then we might as well just trust our lives to a god. Oh wait! That’s hat they do!!! So then, I use reason. Here we go: Xenophanes, some 2500 years ago, famously said, arguing against the human propensity to create gods in their own image, “mortals suppose that gods are born, wear their own clothes and have a voice and body. Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black; Thracians that theirs are blue-eyed and red-haired. But if horses or oxen or lions had hands or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men, horses would draw the figures of the gods as similar to horses, and the oxen as similar to oxen, and they would make the bodies of the sort which each of them had.” I learned this many years ago in school back in my country of origin, but this specific text was taken from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/xenoph/). What I then did was to take Xenophanes idea and combine it with good old reasoning in the form of Induction, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “inference of a generalized conclusion from particular instances”. And with those tools I turned to the source that no Christian would ever refute... their own Bible. If you read Deuteronomy 1, and use these two tools, there is no intelligent way to deny that their god was completely made up at their own likeness, with all their own flaws, all their immaturity, all their warrior bronce-age mentality, and with the sole purpose of convincing a group of mostly ignorant people (their version of deplorables) of the righteousness of killing others and despoiling them of their land. Look it up and see for yourselves. Perhaps in further comments we could go one by one through each line and phrase and arrive together to the conclusion that god did not create us, it was for sure the other way around

There is absolutely no evidence to support the existence of a deity. That’s it in a nutshell.

The only "higher power" that can be proven is the universe itself but it is not a god. In order to believe in a specific deity you must be taught it exists, otherwise we would have people born believing in Zeus, Ra, or gods we've never heard of before without ever being told of their existence but instead we have people who follow their traditional family religion blindly, as they were trained to do--you aren't given a choice. If you have never learned about Baal, how could you believe or disbelieve in him--he simply doesn't exist in your reality & you're fine without him. The best evidence against gods is that NONE of them, EVER, in the history of the world has been proven to exist & most are now considered myth--I see a pattern, who else can take a hint?

"Live a good life. If there are gods & they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." -Marcus Aurelius

Several things: Any intelligent being capable of creating anything (I.e. the universe) should be the end result of a process of evolution. A God cannot be considered as not having a beginning because if we accept that, then nothing stops us from skipping the creator and just say that the universe had no moment of creation. So, not only the universe does not need a creator, but life as we know it offers no evidence of the existence of a God, and in fact the state of the human race suggests that there is no God. And if there is one, the way he/she/it designed our existence denotes a being not worth venerating at all. Woody Allen said it perfectly: if we can say something about God is that he is an underachiever.

Complete lack of credible and verifiable evidence of any existence of any gods, ever.

How do you "believe" in the non-existance of something that doesn't exist? This can't be about belief. We believe in things because we do not have proof in their existence. Belief acts as that proof. I don't think it's possible to believe in the negative. I "don't believe in ghosts," I don't "believe" that ghosts don't exist.

Hospice nurse, retired, 25 years of pure nonsence. I am what they call, jaded. I have seen it ALL...at one time or another. Lived in different countries (gave birth 1st time in Colombia) took care of more people than I can count, in all states of life. Combine that with family members, you have a fucking zoo....Grateful Dead said it best, enjoy the ride.

I lack a belief in God, as has been described by religions, so I am an atheist. I don't assert, 'there is no God.' Rather, I find that there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of this God. As an atheist, I remain open to new evidence which, as Carl Sagan noted, would need to be 'extraordinary.' But I feel no need to search for such evidence which, as most know, could easily be provided by any Deity who desired to be found. My atheism was a natural step from my agnosticism. After all, if there were something we could in no way hope to have knowledge of, why would anyone form a belief in it? The two terms are generally interchangeable ... just two sides of the same coin.

For the same reason I don't believe in vampires, werewolves, trolls, fairies or unicorns, there's no proof. If they existed, someone would have seen one by now.

I merely use logic and facts, this way it is not a debate within my head. And then when one states there is a god, we must ask who the god is they speak of.

No evidence. None. Nada. Zero. And it's silly.

I can't see any place in the universe where a deity would have anything to do. I also don't see any way for some life form to become a deity, or any way for something outside the universe to affect anything inside (and no evidence that anything ever did). There being no gaps for a god to fit into, I have to conclude that there never was one.

Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that so many religions were invented at about the same point in history where people started getting into hallucinogenic drugs. Mix the ability to speak with people tripping on mushrooms, etc. and religions seem to be the inevitable result.

Well, I'm of the mind that the Universe/Multiverse is just way, WAY too complex to be encompassed by silly ideas like "Big JuJu in the sky." It's all so ENORMOUS and my part in it seems microscopic. But on the other hand, I find it easy to consider the possibility that all reality as I experience it, is the product of the singularity that is my own consciousness.

I don't think I've ever met an atheist who didn't go the evidence route in their decision. Usually it's the agnostics that feel there must be something, go on a belief that there is, just are accepting that there is no proof and that they have no right to push their belief that there is. Not always, clearly, as I do recognize there are agnostics that don't believe there is on, but there is no way to prove one way or the other.

Our trust in science is belief, too. There are beliefs not based on evidence or good reasoning,and then there are rational beliefs that are so based. One could argue that most of our knowledge is basically rational belief (as opposed to absolutely certain knowledge).

We can approx Keplar186-F which is 500light years away. More planets, galaxies etc keep revealing while the statistical chance of a deity goes down a billion a day e.g. 1 in a trillion, 1 in two trillion. Until the probability was shown against what seemed impossible we can now determine that 'ridiculous' probability does up while God, any god goes down.