The Gotcha List

Correct, and you can't prove there are no invisible dragons either. Atheism isn't a claim to know. It's not being convinced. The person making a claim carries the job of supporting it. What atheism is

Not believing something needs no faith, any more than not believing in the Tooth Fairy does. Faith is what you use when the evidence runs out. What atheism is

Atheism has no creed, leaders, rituals or holy book. It answers one question only. If "not collecting stamps" is a hobby, then atheism is a religion. What atheism is

That's the Kalam argument. If everything needs a cause, then God does too. If God doesn't, the rule has exceptions and the universe could be one. And physics doesn't say that things at the quantum level need causes. "We don't know what happened at the beginning" isn't the same as "God did it". The Big Bang · The big arguments

Most of the universe is deadly to life, and we're a late, tiny exception. We can only observe a universe that allows us to exist. We also don't know the constants could have been different, or how likely each value was. Fine-tuning

An honest answer is "nobody knows yet". "God" doesn't solve it, since it just moves the question: why is there a God? The big arguments

Which God? Thousands have been proposed, and each says the others are wrong. A god who rewards honest doubt over pretended belief is as likely as any. And belief isn't a switch you can flip because it's convenient. The big arguments

No. We share a common ancestor with apes, about 6–8 million years ago. Monkeys split off even earlier. We didn't come from monkeys

So is gravity. In science a theory is a well-tested explanation. Where creationist arguments go wrong

There are, including whales with legs and Tiktaalik, a fish with wrists. See the fossils

Not from nothing. From chemistry. Amino acids and the building blocks of RNA form in labs, in meteorites and in asteroid samples returned to Earth. We don't have the full story yet, and we don't claim to. Where life came from

Rocks, ice cores, tree rings and starlight all say billions. Young Earth · Dating methods

Soft tissue and proteins have been found in some fossils, but iron and chemistry can preserve them for far longer than once thought. It's a surprise, not a refutation of dating. Dating methods

From the same places believers do: empathy, family, society and reasoning. Other animals show fairness and comfort too. And believers don't actually get morals from the Bible alone, or they'd keep slaves. Morality without God

Meaning comes from what we love, make and do for others. A meaning that is handed to you isn't the only kind, and may not be the best kind. Meaning without God

Stalin and Mao ran states that persecuted religion, but atheism itself prescribes nothing. Those regimes were driven by political ideologies and the pursuit of power, and they persecuted many atheists too. Hitler spoke of "providence" and said he was a Christian in public, though privately his views are debated. Cruelty has been done in the name of all kinds of belief, and none. Judge ideas on the evidence. What believers say back

This is the oldest objection to God, not for it. Free will can't explain earthquakes or childhood cancer. The big arguments

Many places and kings are real. That's true of any ancient book, including the Iliad. Key events, such as the Exodus and the fall of Jericho, have no evidence. Archaeology

Many were written after the event, are vague, or are not predictions at all in their context. Prophecy

Start here. Contradictions · Errors · The Bible's cosmos

The earliest writings are letters from Paul, decades later. The gospels came 40 to 70 years after and disagree on details. Stories grow in that time. We have the same kind of "witness" for many miracles from many religions. What believers say back · Paul vs. Jesus

Josephus and Tacitus mention him, and most historians think he lived. That's a long way from showing he rose from the dead. Strange theories, checked covers the weak claims on both sides.

People who nearly die often report light, calm and leaving the body. Brain science explains much of it, and when hidden pictures were placed in hospital rooms to test whether patients really floated up, none of the patients in the largest such study (AWARE, 2014) reported them. Only a small share recalled anything at all.

Big controlled studies find no effect. The largest, the STEP trial (2006), followed about 1,800 heart-surgery patients and found that being prayed for made no difference to recovery. Those who knew they were being prayed for did slightly worse.

Your experience is real, and it deserves respect. But people in every religion, and people with no religion, report equally powerful ones, and they conflict. Experience tells us what a person felt, not what caused it. Where you're coming from

Brain injury, drugs, anaesthesia and disease change personality and thinking in detail, which fits mind depending on brain. We don't yet fully explain consciousness. That's a gap in knowledge, not a proof of a soul.

Every culture has stories about thunder gods too. Humans are good at seeing minds behind events and at passing on beliefs in groups, which explains why religion is everywhere and also why there are so many different ones. Where you're coming from

You can't be angry at something you don't think exists. Some people who left a faith are angry at the people or the harm. That's different. Where you're coming from