Why are atheist...atheist?

[Alastor]

LoL, I just capitalized the words but that is not a tatrum.

Good, because only a calm and cool head can debate properly. Think we both can agree with that one.

Yes very much.

Explanatory power comes from the ability to explain the unknown. God cannot explain how the universe formed, god cannot explain how anything works. Of course it requires evidence which must be based on measure, repeatability and testing. Something that can be verified/falsified. If not, then it has no explanatory power.
God is not falsifiable, that's the problem. There is no value in the claim and so no explanatory power.

What I've stated was simply to explain why a unicorn is dissimilar from God in using observation to denounce its existence and how God dissimilar from any other imaginary character. I have not tried to used God to explain anything other than the design of the universe which never expected to be proof of anything. However, if that is your definition of explanatory power than, yes, God has no explanatory power.
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If there is no evidence of such a thing, it is rational and logical to dismiss it. Why assume it exists if there is no evidence to suggest it's existence?
Also, ever heard of absence of evidence is evidence of absence? Like there is an absence of evidence of change in my pocket. So based on lack of evidence of there being any, there is evidence of lack of change in my pocket.

I never stated one should assume belief in God but to assert that he doesn't exist is ignorance. In its most basic form, my belief is that God probably exist.

Take your example. Lets say you didn't check for change in your pocket and have no memory of whether there might be or not. Does it make sense to assert that there is no change in your pocket based on what you know?

The universe exists, how do you know it was a god that did it?

I don't. I say he probably exist because the contrary is not sufficiently acceptable to my beliefs.

The beings you invent are just concepts. If you think there is a god, you can look for it if you wish, however, rejection of such ideas remains a rational conclusion.

Only rejection of beliefs about such a concept are rational.

No, because that's not explanatory power. Your god beliefs have no value, there for, no explanatory power.

Again in this circumstance, explanatory power, for me, was demonstrating how a unicorn differs from God in making beliefs about the object based on observations. By my original definition there is clear explanatory power.

The simplest explanation which is most likely correct is that the universe exists, and we don't know how. Saying god did it doesn't do anything. The more assumptions one makes, the more wrong you probably are.

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Again the only conjecture I make is that God probably exist and I leave it at that. I don't make any more assumptions and don't expect that saying "God did it" is somehow proof. Thats my personal belief and choice based on reasoning.

My reason for this thread was to learn why atheist, now known only to be strong atheist, irrationally assert that God doesn't exist without any evidence. I still have figured that this answer though.

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Okay, how's this..Definitions of god exists, descriptions of god exists, those we atheists refute emphatically. On to your creator premise. Nowhere in the known universe do things puff into existence. Nothing is operated by nor created by an act of magic. So why with our finite knowledge should we base possible yet unlikely creation scenarios as anything more than superstitious and fallacious nonanswers. The universe does not require magic, and it did not.come.from nothing. You will find zero evidence of creation.

We have to work with what we know. We have to separate the merely possible from the probable. A god, and a creator, alike are no more probable than unicorns or leprechauns.

Well I'm basing this belief on the big bang theory. This theory states that before the big bang, the universe was the size of a dot as small as a molecule. Where did that molecule come from and how was it formed? The fact is the universe essentially "began" at some point according to this theory. The dynamic time based nature of the universe makes it unlikely that it was always just here. Furthermore I can always ask how anything got there until I get to nothingness, it would never end.