You're right I was a Christian, I was told all my life that the earth is 6000 years old, that fossils are the devils tricks, and that evolution is silly nonsense. There is not definite proof that God doesn't exist, you're asking us to prove a negative which is completely silly. Those that put forward a claim "X is real", carry the burden of proof to justify their statement, I haven't heard a single reasonable argument for the existence of a god. Things that can be accepted without evidence can be denied without evidence. No one can "prove" a god exists because god by definition, is a SUPERNATURAL entity, thus beyond the natural world and beyond the reach of science. Every single argument I've ever heard for the existence of god, has dozens of rebuttals that prove it wrong, and the argument ends there, Xians just say "Well it's my belief". How does being an atheist cause you to have a lonely life? There isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but that doesn't make the rainbow any less beautiful. When it comes to disproving god, all we can do is disprove the claims people make about god, we can't actually disprove god. For example, if you wanted to convince someone that Socrates never existed, you can't actually PROVE he never existed, all you can do is disprove the claims to his existence, and when you do this you're casting doubt onto his existence.
Even if "many "nonBelievers" were running back to church", that doesn't support the idea that a god exists, all it proves is that people were feeling like their lives were out of control. When people think things are out of control they grasp onto any thing that makes them feel in control, be it a concept or an ideology. It's one of the down-sides of human natural, we abandon all logic and reason too quickly, just so we can feel good. We're a paranoid species, we try to attribute any natural occurrence to supernatural-agencies.
That's another mistake we humans make, we assume that the reality we experience is for us, we're extremely selfish in that sense. When the sun does go red giant (if were even still here when it happens [which I HIGHLY doubt]) the universe won't miss us. Hopefully we can get off this tiny blue speck (God-willing ) long before that happens.
The problem with this is that since the Advent of Galileo and the Modern Scientific Method, all the evidence we have gathered seems to move us further and further away from the notion that any of the major religions are right, this has been going on for 500 years now and I can't see such a HUGE turn around happening. As far as the Judeo-Christian faith goes, I've screwed the pooch on that one, I've commited an unforgivable sin, blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
"Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" - because they said, "He has an unclean spirit." (Mark 3:28-30)
Oh yeah know me all too well.
You took the time to write all that out, the least I could do is read it.