The best argument for atheism is that there is absolutely no proof, no imperical evidence for God, or an afterlife what so ever. My favorite argument is that the existence of God is unprovable.

I'm not an atheist but I had to do a speech for class once against praying in school.. I'm not sure if these are the TOP but they were part of my argument. I'M NOT SAYING I SHARE THESE BELIEFS! 1) if there was a god and praying to said god worked, how come there is war and famine and kids dying.. stuff like that. Basically if there was a god, bad stuff wouldn't happen, right? 2) The bible. Atheists think that it's just to hard to believe... any passage is subject for personal interpretation . . . anyone can see them differently than the last person. They find lots in the bible to be contradictions. 3) Some believe that faith is unreliable and unreasonable. . basically faith is not a source of knowledge. People want to believe there is a god and a heaven to make themselves. . feel more comfortable with their life's decisions. I hope that's helpful. .

Nobody ever declared a war in the name of atheism.

I wouldn't know. I tried to join once but they didn't have enough holidays

1. 'The argument from Complexity' How did the universe begin? Something had to be there first. (note that ironically this is the very same way that the most famous argument for theism starts). This something is either god, or it is something else, energy or some sort of quantum fluctuation. Now how big are the odds that god 'just is there'? An omnipotent, omniscient being capable of intelligently designing the whole universe just is, without explanation or anything? God is very complex, and complex things are improbable. If you look at a human, you can't say 'all those molecules got together by chance and formed a human'. In this case though, we have evolution to explain it. In god's case, there is no evolution allowed, since he is by definition the 'first cause'. Therefore, god is improbable. The problem with god is that it doesn't explain anything. One wonders 'how did human consciousness get here?' and tries to explain it with an even bigger consciousness already being there anyway. One could as well say humans just existed forever, and it would explain the same thing, actually with less effort and therefore favored by Ockham's razzor. The first cause needs to be something simple, that leads to self organizing complexity, like illustrated by evolution. We can't start with a fully developed intelligent being, this just makes no sense. 2. 'there just is no evidence whatsoever' Why believe in something without evidence? Studies with two groups of people going through surgery, one prayed for the other not, have showed that prayers don't work (what a surprise). The argument from design of animals is refuted by science through evolution. The argument from cosmological design and abiogenesis is refuted by the incredible size of the universe (100 billion galaxies each containing 100 billions of stars -> so many opportunities for life to be formed by chance) and the antrophic principle. There are probably even billions of universes altogether. If god existed, wouldn't we at least have some evidence for this? And the argument 'god doesn't want to be proven' is the very lame. One can always come up with some rationalizations, it's just not the rational way. 3. 'What are we arguing about anyway?' The two arguments above are against the very basic definition of god: 'creator of the universe'. EVEN IF god exists, what kind of god would he be? There are thousands of religions on earth, which one is right? Some people say Jesus appears to them, some say it's Allah, some say it's Buddha, some say it's Zeus. Why should any religion be more true than any other, they all have no evidence whatsoever. EVEN IF THERE is a creator, why would he even care about humans, one out of 2 million species on one out of billions of planets of one out of hundreds of billions of galaxies? Humans have existed for not even 200000 years, the universe is 13.7 billion years old! Does it really seem like where the 'image of god'? Those were the most convincing arguments that I know... I don't know the level of your school, I do hope you all accept in evolution. If you belong to one of those creationist school (sorry for you then), you would have to go through the painful exercise of explaining to everyone how evolution works, that it's not a just luck and that it's a fact and that stuff... I wish you an interesting and fruitful discussion, it's a great idea to do this. Feel free to ask further questions.

1. Atheists don't carbomb anybody 2. Atheists don't knock at your door on a Sunday morning 3. Atheists don't thumb anything 4. Atheists don't threaten anybody with anything if they don't believe as they do 5. Atheists don't put disclaimer stickers on the Bible 6. Atheists don't picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq 7. No war has ever been fought in the name of Atheism 8. Atheists live life to the fullest in the here and now

We have a rational and realistic view of life and don't make rash decisions in the name of an invisible man, essentially. We follow the natural rights given to us from birth, respect your fellow human.

1. There is no evidence at all for the existence of any deities. In the past, the best way they could explain lightning is that it was a weapon wielded by a god hidden in the clouds. Volcanoes were gods hidden inside mountains. A rainbow was a multi-coloured post-it note pinned by god on the sky to remind himself not to drown every living thing on the planet except for Noah and the contents of his boat. We've come a long way since then, and we do understand these phenomena - we know that it's not these gods, so we discarded them. Every single phenomenon we've encountered and learned about has resulted to be a natural phenomenon, not a god. In general, an extraordinary claim (such as a god, or the ability to self-levitate, or predict the future) requires extraordinary evidence to support it. There is no evidence at all for gods. 2. History shows us that believing in god does not make someone a good person. Countless crimes are committed by devoted followers of religion every day, so clearly religion does not stop them from doing evil. More than that, some of the worst atrocities were committed IN THE NAME of religion. There's a difference here: If a Christian happens to commit a crime it's one thing, but if he/she decides to commit a crime BECAUSE their religious beliefs lead them to do it, then religion is actually detrimental. The Jews were subjected to all kinds of crimes because of Christian anti-semitism: the pogroms, the inquisitions, the holocaust, etc. In ex-Yugoslavia, the enemies were Christians vs. Muslims, and that is practically the only difference between them. Europe had a long history of wars between Catholics and Protestants - again, these were all citizens of the same country and same ethnic group, sometimes the same families, and the only difference was their belief. The burning of witches, burning of heretics, the crusades, the inquisitions... all of these were inspired by religion. There have certainly been evil atheists just as there have been evil religious people, but there has never been a war in the name of atheism, or people killed for refusing to become atheists. 3. Believing in gods often holds back progress. I'm sure you know about Galileo Galilei, who was imprisoned for life for saying that the earth orbits the sun instead of vice-versa, or Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake for saying that there could be other world out there besides our own. They were right, but religion came down hard on them. Who knows how many great discoveries would have been made, or made earlier, if people were not terrified that they would be burned alive for speaking their minds? This has not stopped of course. In the US they're still trying to teach kids that the universe was created 6000 years ago, and evolution did not take place. I find that shocking and unbelievable - almost half the US population rejects evolution! And what about stem cell research? By resisting this, research is held back. How many lives might be saved if this research was allowed to go ahead and was used to develop cures for terminal illnesses? What about gay marriage? Why should two men not marry each other if that's what they want? It's not like this is suddenly going to make every man leave his wife overnight to marry another man. How about the Catholic church teaching people from Africa, where 1 in 5 people are HIV+, that using condoms causes AIDS? And this is not some uneducated backwater priest, it was Cardinal Trujillo - one of the top people in the church.

As an atheist, I don't need any arguments. It is the *absence* of arguments supporting a belief in invisible, omnipotent, eternal spirits that make me an atheist. Keep in mind that atheism is the default condition. Babies are not born believing in god(s). Well-meaning parents force their beliefs upon their children when they are young and gullible.

1) Don't forget that atheism is a single issue. It is simply not believing in a god. It is not "knowing there isn't a god." Don't let anyone take you down any other path. 2) Theists make the claim there is a god. The person who makes the claim is the person who has to provide evidence for their position. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. When such claims are made, the default position is to ask for evidence and withhold belief until such evidence is presented. 3) Evidence and proof are not the same thing. Neither theist or atheist has proof. Theists have no evidence and they are making the claim that there is a god. If you take the position that it's 100% sure that there isn't a god, your position is as indefensible as the theist's position that is 100% sure there is one--and you are not fairly representing the vast majority of atheists in the world.

1. There is no evidence for god, just as there is no evidence for the Tooth Fairy. So there is no more reason to believe in god than the Tooth fairy. 2. Most people don't believe in Thor, Zeus, Quatzecoatl, and all the other gods than have come and gone in history. Atheists are just consistent - and also don't believe in Jehovah. 3. The effectiveness of prayer - or lack thereof.

Atheism is a provisional opinion. It is based on evidence. Given sufficient evidence in support of the existence of a god or gods I would admit my error and alter my ideas accordingly. I think that most atheists would do as I would, although there might be some disagreement about what constituted sufficient evidence. This is the fundamental difference between theism and atheism. Theism is a belief atheism is a currently held opinion.

1. Religion is, by definition,impossible to prove. If we could prove it, it'd be science. 2. Religion is not consistent. Not only are there a billion different ones, every member of every religion believes a slightly different version of said religion. Everyone sees every god a different way. If a god could present a unified front, well, that would be one thing, but as it is everybody just kind of makes up their own religion. 3. Religion has a ginormous potential to be incredibly dangerous, because religion answers to no one. You can't prove it wrong, but you can change it and twist it and use it for whatever purpose you want, because it's not gods who run religion, it's people. If gods were really in charge it might be a different story. As it is, if gods exist, they're probably sitting up in Heaven thinking "Knew I should've hired that PR agent - these priests are killing me!"

Atheists don't try to make you feel guilty about the way you live your life.