If I were an Atheist

[downbeatplumb]

"We make no claims" is another of my favorite dodges.

Setting up the strawman there.

If no claims, why a media? Why a forum? Why all the arguments?

Because theists can't keep there stupid ideas to themselves and love to impose their views on everybody else.
They always have done always will.
If you could keep your meddlesome noses out of everyone elses business that would be super

 At minimum atheists must make the claim that belief in deity is unsupported by available evidence.

Not really. All that required is not to believe. Some of us have learnt more but it is not required.
Your minimum is more than is required.

I see nothing wrong with making a claim anyway. Ideally, the claim then stands or falls on its own merits. Where I will differ from most atheists is that I don't think the evaluation of merits for a deity claim should be restricted solely to scientific criteria. Conceptions of god involve more than just what we know about the natural world.

Science is the only method we know to get to the truth of reality. If you are saying science can't evaluate it than this is the same as saying it does not exist.

Of course the agenda the Evangelicals advance is so ridiculous I'm not surprised to see atheists ridiculing it. Nor do creationism or Noah's Ark have any place in public schools except as literature. So, I'd rather see atheists making a few claims than none. And while the big bang and neo-Darwinian evolution aren't necessary for atheism, I'd be willing to bet that about 98% of atheists subscribe to both these theories, going as far as to draw existential inspiration from them. Call it a deep human need for love. 

Interestingly there have been many atheists through history.
They are even mentioned in the bible.

Psalm 14.1 The fool says in his heart there is no god.

Those people did not know about evolution or the big bang, and the Jews Moses lead out of Egypt in that weird myth could not wait to worship anything but Yahweh as soon as moses was out of sight i.e. these people who were supposed to have witnessed directly "god" at his most interventionist were not convinced.