Ok, dear theists, I admit I can't prove that god doesn't exist and you can't prove it exists either. We simply don't know what it was in the very beginning - something from nothing, nothing from something or a beardy man got bored to death and decided to entertain himself breeding humans and other species. And it really doesn't matter what did happen quite a long time ago (be it forteen milliards or seven thousands years). What matters is how does it affect me and you here and now. \n \n Atheistic answer to this question is that it's physical laws what affects us. The laws as they're known to us might be not completely accurate or full but the nice thing about them is that they're same for everyone and anytime. If a law appears to be wrong it's rejected or amended but its correctness can't be influenced by people in any way. \n\n The religious answer is of course that 'everything is in god's hands'. And in response to humans behaviour god can alter our reality in the way s/he thinks is appropriate. There are of course no strict rules since, you know, god (all of them) works in mysterious ways so what worked for the other guy may not work for you. \n\n \n Both atheists and believers want to change reality - make it more comfortable and safe. Atheists' way to accomplish this is to employ their knowledge of the physical laws. Believer's way is to follow their gods commands. Occasionally they may seem to act like atheists - do science or visit a doctor but all good what may come out of it is certainly at god's grace. And to deserve that grace a believer of course should follow god's prescriptions which all modern gods give solely in the form of holy texts (the situation with pagan guys is more tricky).\n \n And here we come to the most important moment - all holy texts existing now do not give clear description of what is expected from their believers. It gives only a narrative, a nice story or enthralling plot but when it comes to real life questions, a god is supposed to judge you by, the guidance appears absolutely vague. I bet nobody would able to distinguish between christian, muslim, buddhist or atheist by their day-to-day deeds. \n\n All religions say 'don't kill' and then add 'but if for good cause…', 'don't steal, but if you're starving..., 'don't lie, but if there are threats to life...' and so on. What is good cause? When you're hungry enough? Was that a threat to life? Who knows. The holy books give only loosy samples, suggestion. Of course they seem absolutely reasonable and for a human it's really impossible to foresee all variety of the situations… but wait, we're talking about a book created by god, right? Nothing should be impossible for him/her?\n \n The ambiguity of the holy books gave fertile soil for proliferation of all sorts of sects and denominations. Of course each claiming to be the only true one. Very often differences in their doctrines are very subtle yet enough to treat each other as heretics having to place in paradise. How do you know that your sect is correct one?\n \n If you try to study history of your religion I'm sure you'll find your fellow believers even within same denomination applying completely different approaches to the similar problems and of course always claiming that all is done in complete conformity with god's manuals. How do you know who and when was right?\n \n To put it in other words - your holy book can't give you an idea of what your god expects from you. So you either should rely on voices in your head or do not expect to see neither paradise nor any god's grace over your undertakings. It is effectively void. And since modern gods didn't give us anything but books they are nothing but void too.\n \n And the last - why would an atheist care about all those religious people problems? I would be more than happy to stay as far as possible from your imaginary friends if only we hadn't to share this little planet. As you know history repeats itself and I really don't want to find myself one day on a bonfire because theological thought again shifted towards vision that burning atheists is a perfectly godly approach of dealing with heresy. So please put aside your holy books at least for a moment and have a look at works of George Eliot, Daniel Handler, Bertrand Russell and other humanists.\n I'm sure these days most theists perfectly realize and accept physical laws. lots of prominent scientist are very religious