Pikkiwoki Lives!

A well-meaning friend tells me that atheists cannot exist because they cannot prove that their god doesn't exist. I Attempted to inform him that (1) if an atheist claims god does not exist, the burden of proof is on her, but if a theist makes the claim that her god exists, that burden falls on her, and that evidence of non-existence is abundant, while that of a god's existence is thin to the point of near-non-existence in its own right; and (2) my friend is, himself, an atheist in regard to some 3,9999 gods* he does NOT worship.

I have not attempted to count the numbers of gods humans worship and have worshiped in the past, but my rough estimate has it at about 4,000-- and that does not include the FSM, John Carter, and Pikkiwoki. I do not differentiate between Allah and Yahweh, though they are said to be the same god, their followers give the two different characteristics and personalities and conflicting prophet/messiah. Religious texts are no help in determining the number of deities, as each one promotes the deity of the culture that produced the text and each refuses to expound on the validity of the others.

His Bible, my friend says, is proof of the existence of his god, but by that reckoning, Spiderman comics prove the existence of Spiderman and Honore de Balzac's Old Goriot proves the existence of Rastignac. Even Sasquatch has a grainy photograph to vouch for him. No, to convince me and many other atheists out there, you must introduce me to this god person and  have him perform a few miracles that can be duplicated in a scientific setting. Then, have him apologize for the misery with which he has plagued the world, and then, if I feel the apology is sincere, me and god can go out for a drink and maybe even become best buds.

Show me scientific evidence for the existence of dragons and I will consider the existence of gods, angels, demons, unicorns, lizard people, and all the other delusional claims of the lives of mythical entities. I do admit, though, to a fondness for Pikkiwoki.