There is no burden of proof for atheists. You can't disprove something that doesn't exist.
Awful lot of people trying to convince themselves otherwise on here.
It seems to me that every 5 pages or so we come in a circulatory pattern with the same people desperate to prove there's no evidence for Gods existence. The odd fresh meat coming along to politely try to agree with you. It's not about Proof.
The title of the thread is really 'What is the
point of Religion'. Nearly two thousand years ago Christianity overturned the Roman way of life, conquest and colonisation. Since that period it was used to keep the peasant and middle classes subservient and again, to colonise. I'd guess that since the end of the First World War and with every new development of science Christianity has become less relevant to larger numbers of people however it was never meant to be about mass control of the people by the people and yet it has done good along with bad immeasurably. The cause of wars but by people for selfish gain and corruption and the cause of countless communities and societies, organisations attempting to help mitigate the results of that corruption. None of the writers in the Bible intended their work to be compiled and used for evil I'd say and yet it is in some humans natures to attempt to rule and some to be ruled even though God and Jesus talked about Free Choice but we haven't been able to help ourselves overcome our traits.
Now, we are at a point in time when we have never had so much Free Choice in our personal beliefs although it has become less than necessary to use Religion to motivate us in our conquests for what someone else has or to deny them what they want, our leaders no longer need Religion to get their way, its much easier now. They only need to talk about things like patriotism, fascism, communism, terrorism. In reality it is one set of peoples want their way of life to remain and one, their way of life to improve. Somebody always needs keeping in their place.
So back to what is the point now we have Religion all to ourselves? Science is all, death is the end, we have no hope except eventual immortality for our descendants, to live on another planet because by the time it may be possible it will be a race to still have the necessary resources. Without belief we are still heading somehow for what had been prophesied in the Bible. Religion by the way is growing, despite this thread, but it is growing most in the third world, Christianity and Islam. To me it seems in the western world we have lost hope while trusting that science will answer all our questions, science that seems to come ever closer to proving that something unseen and all powerful exists.
The point about believing in God isn't about Proof, it is about helping our fellow man, all our fellow men, not just the ones we choose to have rather then the ones we choose to have not. God says I give you free will, choice, but to come to me I ask you to love your fellow man, all of them, that is the point.
