[danielf]

Originally Posted by Chris

I think Kymmy's hit the nail on the head here. Nobody can say they are an atheist on the basis of science, because science gives no basis for any conclusion about the existence or otherwise of a deity.

Anyone can of course be an atheist, but let's be absolutely clear about this: atheism is a belief, not a scientific principle.

There is however, the scientific principle of parsimony. Given two explanations for a phenomenon, choose the one that has the least degrees of freedom or is most constrained.

I think it's fair to say that an omnipotent being is not very constraining as far as explanations go.