Empirical evidence that
God and all the
religions that have sprung up around the concept are fairy tales.....don't I wish it were that easy. It is logically impossible to actually prove a negative like that, unless of course you possessed the abilities that the purported being would actually have, like omnipotence, omni presence, etc.... In that case a simple look in the mirror would be sufficient to actually prove my premise false. What it really comes down is what are you going to believe.
A vast majority of the population of the earth is indoctrinated into some sort of
religion at a very early age. To cast off that indoctrination can be very difficult as you are usually immersed in a community with like beliefs were these ideas are continually reinforced and to actually step outside your
religion can have profound consequences on you and your standing within that community. That ties in with an old colloquialism where a high ranking church official in some
religion was purported to say, "Give me a kid before he is 10 and he is mine for life." There is no hint of passing along any type of "truth" or "wisdom" in a comment like that, it is more or less a confession that children can be brought to believe just about anything as long as they are indoctrinated at an early enough age. Then the question becomes, are these same people able to take those beliefs later in life, hold them up against the universe and see if they make any sense. My experience with that question is that the answer is no. People who are taught to believe these "fairy tales" when they are young will continue to believe them no matter what evidence is brought to bear that some ideas they hold dear, just might not be true. It is impossible to prove them wrong, so they will hold on to anything.
As far as examples go..I can give a few, but I am not expert any given field, just spouting off what I read about various disciplines.
Early Astronomers were some of the first to start chipping away at the bedrock of some of the Bronze Age beliefs that are the basis of many of the worlds
religions. The Bible and many other religious texts speak of the Earth as being the center of the Universe. It was a fixed object and
the Sun, the moon, the other planets and stars were all thought to move about the sky. The early Astronomers using very simple tools proved that the Earth actually moves about
the Sun and the Earth was just another planet. Then we found that our Galaxy was not unique and there a billions of other Galaxies out there. Now we are finding, as was obviously expected, that there are lots of other planets out there as well. So the Earth, as some sort of unique creation, has now become rather ordinary.
Cosmologists and Physicists have created elaborate theories of the how the universe has evolved from fractions of a second after the Big Bang to the present. Our understanding of these concepts is far from complete, but their is a mountain of evidence that the Universe is 13.7 Billion years old and that the structure we see around us has evolved naturally since the Big Bang. We no longer need a "fairy tale" to explain where the stars and the Earth came from, that all falls out of the scientific theories. All that is really left is to explain the initial impetus that started the whole thing. That still lies well beyond the understanding of modern science...but they are working on it. To say that this "fairy tale" is responsible for that impetus is all well and good since we have no better explanation, but what have we reduced the "creator" to in this case? '
The Sun no longer needs a creator as it is thought to have coalesced out of a Hydrogen cloud like all the other bezillion stars in the universe. The Earth itself no longer needs a "creator" either it simply coalesced with all the other planets around the young sun. So not only do we not necessarily hold a special place in the Universe, we also are not necessarily part of any "special" creation.
Paleontologists and Biologists have shown over the past hundred years or so that life on this planet arose from simple single cell organisms. Through
evolution these forms became more complex and have ultimately led to intelligent life. It has been shown that the building blocks of the simple single celled organisms exists in space and could have been brought to the earth in many different ways. Research is ongoing as to how this life arose and how
evolution has shaped the progression of species. Now we no longer need a "creator" for life either.
Lastly, the study of the human mind and the brain is showing that they are really one in the same. The concept of there being some sort of supernatural "soul" that controls the physical body simply doesn't make a lot of sense in light of many of the findings we have. The study of ancient cultures and other primates have shown us how simple morals can be derived without the need for supernatural guidance. Etc, etc, etc......None of what I have said is in any way new and the list could go on forever.
The religious will look at the above and simply state the obvious. None of it proves that "
God" does not exist. However, all the major
religions have long standing dogmas about all the things I talked about above and have been retreating on many fronts for centuries trying to reconcile their beliefs with what scientists are discovering every day. At some point it just comes down to, what are you going to believe.