People with faith, believe.
People without faith, don't.
One will never truly understand the other, and there is never anything new to add to this discussion.
I understand people with faith perfectly. I was raised to be one of them.
And my lack of belief is not my proof there is no God as described by religion...
Its the lack of any evidence that any of the powers held by this purported God actually exist. No Miracles, no intercession thru prayer. No healing.
And, what is more, its the clear understanding of what drives faith... the very things you listed... Human NEED. Human FEAR. Human in-group/out-group dynamics.
The only purpose Faith in God serves is to assuage some human fear or need. And that this fantasy takes the form of some celestial "parent" is further proof that the concept is entirely an artifact of Human infantilism in the face of the unknown and the feeling of lacking power over events.
God gives pitiful human beings the FEELING that they have some INPUT, some small level of understanding or control over things they actually do not have any power over or knowledge of.
We invented God to fill in the scary dark places, like death, illness, random catastrophe.
When human life was short and sucky, as it was for thousands of years, the Gods we had faith in were vindictive, capricious and cruel. Like that asshole your least fortunate friend had for a father when you were kids.
When life got much longer and much better ( thanks to science) we suddenly started believing in a God that was all loving and generous and well intentioned... like the dad we all wished we had.
This again is further proof that God is nothing but the reflection of how we feel about our own lives... and this fact is underlined by the fact that those folks who STILL live sucky lives in sucky parts of the world STILL believe in a vindictive and punishing God who demands war, and killing, and conversion...
The same Faith that fuels Habitat for Humanity fuels the murder and terrorizing of abortion providers.
Clearly the Faith conforms to the nature of the believer... and not the believer conforming to the nature of the faith.
I once believed. I understood all that the faithful claim to understand.
But then I turned 11. And the malarky became impossible to ignore.
Real understanding and clear observation made obvious the real motivations underlying belief.
So, Sorry, but your characterization of the equivalency of both perspectives is invalid.
One is a group of people claiming faith in something impossible, evidently non-extant, and overtly a dodge for endorsing whatever world view they individually choose to espouse... be that feeding the hungry, or controlling the sexuality of women, or excusing their own misdeeds.
And the other group has chosen to hold themselves to an independently verifiable metric of reality and what is or is not true.
One side says 'faith is belief without evidence in proof'
and the other side says, 'that is actually a functional definition of delusion.'
the faithful say, "I don't care about evidence or its lack, I know I am right."
And the atheists say, "if your God actually ACTS, then acts leave evidence. Demonstrate those acts and I will agree with you."
Atheist try to make sense of reality.
The faithful have abandoned any sense of reality.
