God, the Devil, and Religion

Let me begin by asserting that I, in no way/shape/form, believe in a higher power or any sort of supreme intelligent being. I can’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I do know that the answers that humankind has discovered for itself seem to detract from the argument in support of an omniscient, omnipresent ‘god’. I prefer to think of myself as a man of science, and as such I’ll cast my lot in with the bold people who dare to ask the questions that everyone else fears.
    Either god(s) exist or they do not. If they are indeed there, you would think there would be some sort of empirical evidence providing some backing to that hypothesis. However, no substantive proof has been provided, nor has the belief in a god helped to understand in any way how the world and nature function, so the possibility of a higher power’s existence will remain a hypothesis. Unless incontrovertible proof is provided, the only logical course of action is to assume he does not exist.
    A creationist argument would be that ‘a creation denotes a creator.’ Now hold on. If that’s the case, where did God come from? ‘He’s always existed.’ That in itself is a temporal paradox, as it is easy to point out that the Abrahamic God is not beyond time. Many times throughout the Bible, he changes his mind and refines his rules. Does an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God reserve the right to change his future mind? If God is not the master of time, he’s not truly all powerful. Therefore, this ad hoc argument that God, the creator, has always existed is null. As Carl Sagan so eloquently put it, why not just cut out a step and assume that the universe itself has always existed if something can exist without a creator? At least we have proof the universe exists.
    And suppose that there is a greater being that created God. Who created him/her? It's a logical fallacy; it'll just keep going and going until we are worshiping UltraHyperSuperMaxiMegaGod III.
    I've been presented with an argumentum ad populum as a purportedly valid reason to believe in God. In case you aren't familiar with ad populum, it's a fallacious belief that if enough people say something is true, then it has to be. Countless times in the past, this has proven to be bullshit. Example: the earth is flat. That's as far as I'm taking this. My point is made.
    The most damning aspect of religion in general is that it has almost nothing to do with understanding reality and almost everything to do with maintaining belief in the face of absent or conflicting evidence. All one would have to do is look in a history book on ancient civilizations. Look at Norse, Egyptian, and Greek mythology. Are any of these religions actively practiced today? Not at all, because science essentially debunked them. Now I’m sure that practitioners of those belief systems fought hard to prove their beliefs were right, but ultimately they failed. Why would you need Poseidon or Thor to explain a sudden storm when you know it’s because a low pressure system forms while surrounded by a high pressure system?
    Another popular theory is that the existence of evil indicates the existence of God. Before I even attempt to address this, where did evil come from in the first place? If God is 'good', and God created the Devil (who is 'evil'), then God created 'evil'. Now...why would he do something like that? One opinion I've heard before is that evil is the absence of God in the world...you know, that omnipresent supreme being in the sky. Since God is the perpetrator behind 'evil' and also has absolute power over everything, there's no use whatsoever attempting to live any sort of religious life. Since he already knows exactly what you're going to do anyway, free will is merely an illusion. Go ahead and argue for it. Free will does not exist in a creationist world. Besides, I already figured out that God is not beyond time. Go back a couple of paragraphs if you missed that.
    Evil itself is so loosely defined that I have come to question its existence. I can't say why some people do bad things, but the fact that they do does not indicate that God is there. Truly, there have been atrocious acts committed by people against fellow human beings throughout history that one could consider ‘evil’, but conversely, no one does something simply out of malicious intent unless some sort of mental illness is present, as far as I know. For example, Adolf Hitler, while a war criminal and an incredibly delusional, egotistical man did not see his actions as evil. Understand that I am in no way justifying his horrible actions; he is merely a catalyst for my point. While he was horribly wrong and committed terrible crimes, he HIMSELF did not think that he was evil. And countless ‘evils’ have been implemented in the name of God, so this argument is moot. Epicurus's most famous quote comes to mind, in summation.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?
    Someone once tried to back me into a corner over the god hypothesis. He asked me if I believed in love, to which I responded yes. His argument was that I couldn’t tangibly prove love’s existence with visible proof. Love is an emotion felt by human beings, and an emotion is a psychophysiological reaction in your brain that is triggered by an external stimulus. There’s my proof of love’s existence. It’s an emotion, and those certainly exist. Since he couldn’t refute my counter-argument, he asked me to try to explain to my girlfriend that the love I felt for her was no more than a psychophysiological reaction. Firstly, I probably wouldn’t be dating someone who thought anything differently. Secondly, that doesn’t make my love for her any less tangible or special. She’s the only person who triggers that reaction in my brain (of course, this is theoretical, as I am single at the moment). Which leads to my next point: Humanity’s only inherent flaw is the belief that it is inherently flawed. People assume that as an atheist, I’m a miserable bastard who has nothing to look forward to in life. Quite the opposite actually.
    When I look at myself, and those around me, I see perfection. We are the pinnacle of humanity, the flawless product of millions of years of evolution. Nature saw us in this direction, and instead of trying to understand it, we try to create, control, or destroy it. Even when presented with overwhelming evidence against God's existence, believers remain fervent in their beliefs strictly out of a combination of comfort and fear. Does the fact that I believe in nothing mean that life is meaningless? No, it just means that I make my own meaning for my life. Am I afraid of dying? I never have been. It is the one absolute truth that I'll never question; everyone dies. I just have to fully utilize this one life that I've been given to leave my mark on the world. Do I have no morals? Of course I do. Cooperative behavior is much more efficient than selfishness when you're trying to ensure the survival of your race; some morals are innate and need no religion to guide you toward them. People need to learn to compromise over differences instead of despise each other for them. I was about two paragraphs into this thesis, when a friend called and gave me a great quote while we were on the topic of morality; 'every person has one obligation in their lifetime; if you encounter an asshole, you have an obligation to walk away.'
    I have more reasons that I could list for my beliefs, but it’s getting late and I’m drowsy from the four beers that got me through this. Forgive me if I got sloppy towards the end with my presentation. I have more thoughts I’d love to share, and I know I should probably edit this more extensively, but I'll get on it later.

Addendum: For anyone who may be religious, please don’t take this offensively, for that was not my intention. If you are religious and that brings you peace, then I commend you for finding your way. All I’m doing is reaffirming my own.