[gunapologist99]

But evidence is not proof.

Hitchens made a choice to propagate his own faith system, but what evidence has he presented?

Did he present any historical evidence for the absence of deities, or was it simply an opportunity to have a philosophical debate, or even perhaps get famous and have people fawn over your brilliant arguments, and follow you?

[hikingsimulator]

Atheism is not a faith system. It is the absence of faith. Him being a famous orator does not make him a priest.

Logic also does not work this way. You don't prove a negative because it's impossible to provide proof of non-existence (it requires a systemic approach while proving existence requires an anecdotal evidence).

[rob74]

That fact seems to be lost on many atheists, who are very eager to "convert" others to their non-faith - e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist_Bus_Campaign (I also wonder why atheists think religious people are worried and unable to enjoy their life - probably because they take the various rules of the various religions more seriously than ~99% of religious people do?).

[Scarblac]

Atheists aren't a group. It makes no sense to refer to them as a group, they don't in general meet, communicate with each other, or think that not believing in something is an important attribute of themselves that they recognise in others.

Of course for some of them, they will be more conscious of the fact that some people believe in a God, and that they don't. For instance if they grew up with religion and then left it. But that hardly describes all atheists.

Most atheists just don't believe in God in roughly the same way they don't believe in Russell's tea pot. It's not something that comes up very often.

[aamargulies]

As Neil deGrasse Tyson said: I don’t play golf. That doesn’t make me an agolfist.

[gunapologist99]

Coming from him, that's a surprisingly flawed conflation of "playing" and "believing in".

[alasdair_]

> it's impossible to provide proof of non-existence

If I claim to have a $100 bill in my wallet and we open my wallet and do not find the $100 bill, that is proof of its non-existence.

[hikingsimulator]

You don't "have" a god. You can't have them in your wallet; this example is moot.

Saying "There exists vkhmcdtr" would be a closer example. Now prove me that vkhmcdtr does not exist.

And even there, if you are some flavor of Christian, saying God can be reduced to an object, or an incarnate being, can be akin to blasphemy, because they are not a "Being." They are its antecedent. Which is one of the roots of metaphysics and of course Christian theology.

[driverdan]

That's a specific, testable claim. If you claim Buddah or Jesus is in your bedroom that's a testable claim we can prove wrong.

Saying there's a magic invisible sky god is not a testable claim.