If I were an Atheist

[Mister Agenda]

If my opinion we owe our existence to a Creator is wrong it leaves only some mechanistic explanation so if nothing else, it is a second runner up. However, even if it were true is the runner up belief any less miraculous?

Not to someone as determined to put 'God did it' on the same level with serious scientific inquiry as are you.

---

The counter belief is that natural forces minus any plan or intent or to the best of our knowledge any necessity to exist somehow came to exist.

It's not a 'counter-belief'. It's the only thing that we have any evidence for at all. No scientist is going to turn down the Nobel Prize if they find evidence of your Creator. It is not the fault of science that the being you believe in, if it does exist, chooses to hide its existence from the only tools we have for discovering the nature of the universe.

---

1. Some unknown forces caused the natural forces we now observe to exist.
2. Natural forces we observe bootstrapped themselves into existence uncaused out of nothing.

If 1 the unknown forces operate outside of time and the laws of physics we familiar with don't apply to these unknown forces then by definition they are supernatural relative to us, they are also transcendent to us.

By your personal definition. Which no one else here accepts, despite how enormously convenient your personal definition is for you.

---

If 2 we owe our existence to a supernatural magic act. But I suppose for the sake of argument you'll push the goal posts further back and call matter and the laws of physics popping into existence uncaused out of nothing natural.

My guess is like with theism you lack belief in 1 or 2.

Because I have no way of knowing which scenario is actually true, it would be stupid of me to pick one. I try not to be stupid. You should try not to be stupid, too. If it happened and it didn't involve magic and it wasn't artificial, then it's natural. If the evidence ever points to the universe being artificial in the sense that it was deliberately made by something, magic or no. I shall have to accept it.

---

I have provided several reasons why it is a reasonable belief compared to any counter theories. There isn't a lack of evidence to support the belief we owe the existence of the universe and ourselves to a Creator.

You've had it explained in detail why none of those reasons actually support your position and have failed to refute those rebuttals but instead carry on repeating over and over that you've succeeded in the task you set for yourself. It's okay to think you're justified in your own mind, but it's just tedious for you to keep pretending your efforts carry more weight than that. You sound like a record player that keeps repeating the same few seconds over and over.

---

In order for theism to be possibly true (the belief the universe and sentient life were intentionally caused by a Creator) certain conditions must be true or there would be no reason to suggest a Creator is involved. In contrast, there isn't one fact that needs to be true for atheism to be true (the belief (or lack of belief) no Creator exists or was involved in the existence of the universe or sentient humans).

Well for starters, if there is no God, then we must live in a universe whose physical laws allow for the possibility of our existence and for lack of belief in any god or God to be rationally tenable, we must live in a universe where the existence of such beings is not verifiable.

---

In fact there are conditions that if true would significantly favor atheism. For example suppose no universe or humans existed. Not only would atheism be a slam dunk position, there would be nothing existing to attribute to a creator.

Lack of a universe or humans only implies no Creator, not 'no God'. There is no reason why a God couldn't be self-sufficient and complete without making a universe.