The question here is being "begged". The issue is not about opinion or the existence or non-existence of a god but the inherent harm it causes when religious evangelists attack atheists for example as does the Pope. The delusion enables so-called religious moderates to enable the fanatical to voice their disapproval without rebuttal by insisting that their views are correct and atheists are wrong.

History is rife with religious persecution by the religious rather than the Christians that Constantine decided to embrace. It goes on today with the murder of abortion doctors, the misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by church goers and preachers, the hiding of abuse of children and others, the insistence that their laws trump those of the U.S. government, the austere pronouncements of authoritarian self-styled pundits and preachers, and the economic plutocrats such as Falwell and Robertson who have polluted the discourse with their smothering blanket of media ownership.

The bible has been used as a weapon to silence dissent, promote racial segregation, subject young men and women to fight in futile wars, and stop free thought.

Other religions do similar things as the atrocities in the Mid-East and Israel attest.

"seems to me that this amounts to"no observational or experimental evidence".just what you charge theists with."

This statement only shows ignorance of scientific findings of the Twentieth century. You can find all kinds of rubbish on the net. This statement doesn't take into account the accomplishment of hard-working scientists to improve the human condition

This is the era of deniers. Holocaust, global warming, evolution, reproductive science deniers have thrown the world back into the nineteenth century.