Georgiansilver, it is the extraordinary claims which require proof, not the observable reality. Things do not happen for a reason, there was no creation but rather a physical, explainable accretion of matter coalescing into planets, some of which have liquid water, some of which have large moons and thus tides, on some of which some chemicals became able to retain their composition under changing environments (which is what life is, after all - chemicals that don't undergo chemical changes with changing environment through their organization), and so on. As I taught my children, there is no need to prove the absence of gods. We can prove through empirical methods that anything any religion claims was accomplished by gods or a god, wasn't. Reality just is, there is no need to posit explanations requiring its proof. Instead, it is the superstitious who ought to be brought to the realization that their extraordinary claims, despite (or maybe even because of) their antiquity, are the ones that require examination.