Abnaxis said:
What I'm trying to get at, is that both religion and science are, in essence, the practice of determining what we think is the most likely truth based on the assumptions we live with.
I'm perfectly fine with your post up to that point.
Religion is just an old way to explain the world, to predict it and to use those predictions at our advantage.
That's why most of religions are similar in their myths and stories. We both live on the same planet, with the same sun going through the same sky for 12 month and doing it again.
Tales of birth and ressurections are only an ancien way to explain how the sun does its cycle, and why (not how, WHY) he does it. Humans needed reasons for this apparent order, and only religion was available at that time.
But here's the something I'm less fine about:
Given this, even if a higher being somehow does exist, why should I pledge fealty to it? It is bound by the same laws of physics as I am, and there is no reason why I can't be just as omnipotent and omnipresent as He is, with more understanding
It won't work as an argument against deity, because you're presupposing this god is part of the universe he created.
As implied in religions, he existed before the universe. Meaning he exists in a "void", devoid of any dimension.
So he is everywhere (since there's not space dimensions) and he's omniscient (since there's no time dimension, everything is simultaneous to him, the far future as the far past). With omniscience comes omnipotence, so he's omnipotent too.
Conclusion: a god outside our universe would have mostly all the features described in, say, the bible.
Human on the other hand is constrainted by his universe. His brain and concepts are heavily modeled by his immediate surroundings, meaning no quantum physics for him or 11 dimensions' multiuniverses. Physically, we cannot expect (as we currently are) to achieve a god status. We would need machinery to get it for us.
In my opinion, if you need a reason to refute the existence of a god, your current posture (if I understood it well) isn't enough. Science is powerful enough to find a "rational" justification to this kind of god. That's why I prefer to refute the existence of god as a merciful creature, caring for our well-being. Because for this, I have plenty of evidences against, bringing all the claims of any religion to the ground.
That and the inability of any religion to prove the claims they're making about an afterlife, for the last 100 000 years.
Please realize that atheism is not a religion, any more than monotheism or polytheism is a religion.
This point is important, because it's usually the argument we get: "you are as religious as I am, hypocrit!".
Atheism cannot be a religion, since any religion is based on faith, while atheism is based on doubt.
A theist will always believe, no what matter the evidence against it.
An atheist will reasset his system of thinking, at the first proper evidence against his view of the world.
Atheism is a versatile process of finding the truth, adapting itself to the world and building ideals from it.
Theism is a process of keeping old traditions alive, bending the truths of the world to its made-up ideals.
The core of atheism is here: how do I decide what's the best thought process to make decision on a daily basis?
A process that can correct itself every second?
Or a process of circular thinking?
I mean, many denominations of Buddhists are atheistic.
They claim there's an after-life.
Even if there's no god for them, they're still pretending to know something they absolutely don't, forcing people to follow madeup rules for a benefit they have no way to prove (without using sociology or biology).
Plus, the consequences of their samsara thing is dangerous: you cannot force people to "get out of the reincarnation circle" if they know their next lifes will be better than the current one. You need to convince them they will be better when dissolved into the great nothing.
For that, you need a world getting shittier and shittier for certain. So no matter what their reincarnations will be, they will be sure to fall into a worse situation they currently are. Meaning as many disasters as possible, so people will join you in your wheel obsession.
Basically, buddhism is against ecology and progress, because it needs an upcoming apocalypse to convince people to follow its teaching in their current life. Another trait common to all religions I know about.