A reasonable Question to the Reasonable Atheist

A Short Introduction to the Question

The belief that God does not exist, which is what defines an atheist, is a belief that needs defending. For those of you who would say that the burden of proof is on religion I would say I agree with you fifty percent. Much of atheism is based on its attacks on religion but not, ironically, on attacks on the existence of God. Atheist can play an offensive game, no pun intended, by attacking various religious doctrinal beliefs because the burden of proof is on religion to defend those beliefs.  But atheist must switch to defense when they change their arguments from those of attacking religious doctrine to those of declaring their own doctrinal belief that God does not exist.

Let me further explain my position with a concession. Let’s say for the sake of argument, and just for the length of this piece, I concede those atheists are right about religion. Yes, I am conceding, for the sake of argument, that every religious belief is false. The statement that all religion is false will not definitively prove that God does not exist but it will only prove that every religion has got it wrong.

I will pause here for those few of you who will tell me that you cannot prove a negative,  and use that statement as an argument that atheist do not have a burden of proof for the doctrine that God does not exist. Of course you can prove a negative. I can prove I am NOT a German shepherd. I can prove my water glass is NOT filled with crude oil. I can prove that I am NOT a resident of Mars, although it is true my Martian citizenship has been proposed as a theory for my personality my entire life.

Any dictionary will tell us that atheism is the belief that God does not exist. Saying that God does not exist is a declarative statement that goes far beyond the belief that religion is false.  

The Question

If atheism is not just the faith based shadow of religious belief, 
then what are its reasoned intellectual foundations for the notion that God does not exist?

I look forward to your comments.