I think Socialism and Marxism may well be very much religions to many. The DPRK, Cuba and China are founded on Marxist-leninist principles and I agree that many things in these countries have not worked, and that some have (but don't push me to find one vis-a-vis the DPRK). But this has nothing to do with Marx's analysis of how capitalism does or doesn't work. How do you think the capitalist gets rich?

@Geezer: wise words from the Buddha.
'HInduism' is a mass of beliefs and practices that are sometimes contradictory at many levels and are interpreted differently by different batches of people, it's not a single doctrine - it's another word with a somewhat vague. Probably would be better to say that there is at least one school of Indian metaphysicians who have developed the atheist concept. Popularly, people worship their selection of about a million gods - but even then I have met worshippers of Shiva who were free to state that, finally speaking, there are no gods - the gods are personified aspects of Reality.

@Geezer: I agree with what you have written, but only as long as you confine 'Buddhism' to the 'purist teachings' rather than consider the actual social practices that are carried out and the very widespread and varied popular beliefs that go with them. Same is of course true of other religions - e.g., was the Inquisition 'Christianity'?

@husky: good question, but we need to define what is meant by 'missionaries'. I don't know the current answer, but historically Yunnan has not been as much a focus of western Protestant or Catholic missionary activity as many other areas of China.

I think the terms 'God', and especially 'exist', are quite vague and need to be specified carefully before any 'proofs' are attempted, and until they are agreed upon the discussion will probably just be people talking past each other.