Atheism makes claims as well. They claim the universe we observe came into existence apart from a creator. They claim the universe wasn't planned or designed it was natural mindless forces that some how came into existence and wound up unintentionally causing a universe to exist. That's your story and claim and your stuck with it.
Atheism is a lack of belief in gods. Atheism makes no claims as to the origins of the universe, or anything else unrelated to the existence of gods. As you are here trying to debate atheists, it would make sense for you to understand what atheism actually is, otherwise you come across as ignorant.
Only one thing needs to be true for atheism to be true. No God, creator or designer of the universe exists. Nothing else needs to be true. For theism to be true several things have to be true. Anything necessary for theism to be true is evidence (not proof) theism is true.
I'm not going to list premises but facts...
F1. The universe exists. Hopefully no one disputes this.
As far as we can tell, the universe exists. It is hypothetically possible that we are all minds in a vat, but I tend to go with the simplest explanation - that the universe exists. But that doesn't tell us anything about how universes can come to exist.
Theism is the belief God (or some Creator) caused the universe to exist.
Not necessarily. While many theists believe in a creator god, you can be a theist without believing that the universe was created by a god. Theism is a statement regarding the existence of gods, with universe-creator gods being a subset of this bigger group.
If the universe didn't exist theism would be totally falsified.
Not necessarily. See above.
The false slogan there is no evidence of theism would actually be true. In any version of theism to be true a universe has to exist.
Again, not necessarily. Gods could hypothetically exist without the existence of the our local presentation of the universe..
However for atheism to be true only the non-existence of God or a Creator needs to be true.
Atheism does not make positive claims. Atheism is a lack of belief of belief in gods because sufficient evidence to support the theistic claim does not exist. Until sufficient evidence is provided to convince atheists that gods exist, the atheist's position is reasonable, irrespective of whether gods actually exist.
No one would say because I believe no God or Creator exists therefore a universe that supports life should exist.
The existence of life has nothing to do with the existence of gods. Life exists because on the early Earth there was an abundant supply of the chemicals that build life, along with an abundant supply of energy gradients like thermal vents powered by geothermal energy. The thing that the universe does relentlessly is increase entropy, and the existence of life increases the rate at which this increase in entropy happens. Life is a chemical process that accelerates the process. As such, life is an expected consequence of the prime directive of the universe. This is analogous to water flowing downhill - if water gets trapped near the tops of mountains, it will eventually wear out the rock and create caves to allow the water to flow downhill. This happens spontaneously, because our universe works to relentlessly equalize energy gradients - no intelligent being is needed to explain how. Life is just one particularly efficient way the universe increases entropy.
Since the claim is that God caused a universe to exist the existence of the universe makes the claim God caused a universe more probable.
This is circular reasoning, and completely nonsensical. This is your argument:
Premises:
God caused a universe to exist.
The universe exists.
Conclusion:
Therefore god exists.
You are presupposing the conclusion in your first premise, which makes the argument circular.
There is no reason I know of a universe has to exist.
This is an argument from ignorance, which is also fallacious and unreliable. Why the fuck do so many theists not understand how logical arguments work?
Only if one claims God caused a universe to exist does a universe have to exist.If I claim a house was intentionally caused to exist the first line of evidence would be the existence of a house. If I claim houses were intentionally caused to exist but there are no houses everyone would reject the claim. If there are houses that alone doesn't prove anyone made them intentionally but it makes the contention more probable than if none existed.
I can point you to millions of documented cases of people building houses. Can you point me to a single documented instance of gods creating universes? Do you not understand why your analogy is flawed?
I'll repeat evidence are facts which make a claim more probable than minus stated fact. If I claimed that scientists, engineers and programmers caused a virtual universe to exist the existence of a virtual universe would be evidence my claim is correct.
No. In order for god-did-it to be considered a good answer, you would have to (1) demonstrate that gods exists, and (2) demonstrate how gods create universes. Merely asserting god-did-it is not evidence of anything.
One note, I'm not attempting to prove God exists. There isn't enough evidence to prove the existence of God.
Finally something I agree with.
There is enough evidence that makes theism a resonable belief over the counter claim we owe the existence of the universe and sentient human life to forces that had no intention or plan to do so.
Feel free to provide the evidence that would demonstrate god-did-it to be a reasonable answer. You are not even able to articulate an argument to support your claim, much less provide evidence.
Before I submit F2 I'll wait for everyone to deny F1 is evidence in favor of theistic belief.
No evidence to support your claim has been provided.