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Atheists can, by logical reasoning, satisfy themselves that there is no God. But to actually prove that God does not exist is another matter altogether. It is not so easy to disprove the existence of something that cannot be seen. The best that Atheists have been able to do, and the best that they can do and have done, is to assemble facts, observations and opinions and from them reason that God does not exist.
Epicurus wrote:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
And this is often quoted by Atheists as a justification for their position regarding religion. But then, many of the things that we consider to be evil in fact are capable of being sources of good. Is it malevolent of God to let humans use their own free will rather than force them do what is right? In quoting this passage are Atheists suggesting that we should be robots that are compelled to do good? No. God created humans, not robots. Humans have free will - free will that allows them to choose to do good or evil, free will that allows them to accept or reject God.
The attitude of most Atheists seems to be that if something is proven that means it is fact and if something cannot be proven then it must be assumed to be false.
Most educated believers (other than fundamentalists, whose attitudes and motives I find rather difficult to fathom) do not take Genesis literally, contrary to what a lot of Atheists assume. Everyone other than the fundamentalists (who seem to be mainly an American phenomenon) agree that the Earth was not created 6,000 years ago, and agree with Darwin that all life on Earth evolved from an initial life form. But Darwin did not explain how that initial life form came into being. This leaves open the possibility that it was influenced by a creator of our universe.
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