Lark: : To the Atheists, Agnostics etc. your beliefs are as much a religion as Christianity. Copenhagen: Oh give me a break. Atheism means complete denial of any metaphysic, so i don't see how it can be religion.
I'm going to have to agree with Lark here. Atheism is literally a belief that no god exists. As such, it is a belief that can never be tested. The defining characteristics proposed for a god include the ability to hide any and all evidence of it's existence. Therefore, the absence of evidence of god's existence is no more an argument against that existence than it is in favor. In short, the scientific tradition of evidential requirements does not apply to the existence or non-existence of a god or gods. To claim that a god does not exist is just as much a claim about things which one can not possibly know as is a claim that "he" does exist.
Agnosticism is the only position in this argumnet that is supported by the evidence, since that evidence is, by any reasonable standard, insufficient.
If we are to follow accepted scientific reasoning, the best knowledge we can have is probablistic. As such no belief can conclusively be proven. It is just that some are more likely than others.
It is true that arguments about the existence of god are usually excluded from science as unproveable (certain christians excepted).
I do not think it follows however that this means we can have no clue as to god's existrrence. We have other means at our fingertips. We have logic and we have our everyday experience. It is these things i contend that point a rational observer in the direction of the non-existence of god. It is these that point us in the direction of a conclusion that on balance the existence of god is unlikely.
