[beavus]

An atheist can no more prove there is no God than the Christians or Muslims can prove, to their satisfaction, that there is. That being the case, an atheist's belief in the rectitude of his/her position is identical to that of a devout Catholic's in his/her position.

It would seem all belief systems have equal credibility. The belief that one apple and one apple makes two apples is as religious as one that says it makes three apricots. How nihilistic of you.

Of course, you learn in epistomology 101 that such a notion must necessarily undercut your own assertion as well.

[Ronin]

I have never been interested in getting that "zen" about things. After a certain point it is all word games, hair splitting, sophistry, etc.

I will say that my statement was imprecise in that I should have said; That being the case, it is my opinion that an atheist's belief in the rectitude of his/her position is identical to that of a devout Catholic's in his/her position.

Devout Christians and others state they have a personal a personal relationship with God and that God has made himself manifest to them. I am not going to accuse them of falsehood or self-delusion.

Thus, since it is generally agreed that you cannot prove a negative, in this case the negative being "there is no God" those who say "God exists and has revealed himself to me" would seem to have the stronger claim.

All I can tell for sure is that if God exists, he has not made himself known to me personally if a way that I can accept as undeniable divine providence.