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Arguments for and against God's existence. I'd like the negative position to take on an equal burden of proof and provide arguments against God's existence, e.g. the problem of suffering, divine hiddenness, etc.
Those who are openly critical of specific practices, of a specific religious sect, as a member of that sect, are the most potent activists. Non-members, who think their criticism from outside will be well understood, are deluding themselves. Then we have these idiots who think that being against religion or religious groups in general is somehow an intelligent and logically rational position.
"Pointing the finger away from oneself is the coward's favorite form of activism" ~atypican
Archeological evidence combined with research on cultures from around the globe shows a general trend that can be traced by time, technology, and size of population. It is likely that the earliest human societies had no gods and were purely animist (believing everything had a persona or magical powers). With a few exceptions, animism today tends to be found primarily in small, isolated societies with very low technology. Polytheism seems to have been almost universal among growing civilizations around the world until the Abrahamic religions slowly began overtaking the old ways in popularity. Monotheism has been the leader for some time now, and monotheistic societies tended to be more technologically sophisticated than their polytheistic neighbors for centuries. Now atheism is gradually gaining in popularity globally, and we are now more populous and more technologically advanced than we have ever been.
Is all of this a coincidence, or has the human spiritual condition gradully evolved over time and in response to our knowledge of the world around us and increasing size of population? Do the number of supernatural entities we believe in (everything being supernatural, to everything being controlled by a finite pantheon, to everything being controlled by one god, to none) instinctively decrease as our understanding of science increases and our globalism increases? Will there come a time when the majority of the world is atheist? Or is there some better explanation for the spiritual trends seen in history?
The word god is a term that gets used quite a bit in certain circles. Is god a word whose meaning is so poorly defined as to be practically useless, or can you use the word god with good confidence that most everyone will understand what you mean ?