@Frank Apisa,
Quote:Okay...but you realize that I SPECIFICALLY limited our present conversation to the issue of "I believe there are NO gods"...and went way out of my way to highlight that limitation as much as possible.
You started with a contention that NEITHER the belief in gods nor the belief in no gods can be based on experience. Now we agree that in the (rare) case of mystic experiences, the former is not true. I will move to the latter now, but the reasoning is more elegant when both types of beliefs are considered. -- I like the symmetry of it.
Quote:I essentially concede defeat.
Why? Any experience must be INTERPRETED before it can mean anything, and mystic experiences can be interpreted as hallucinations. That's my interpretation of such experiences, in any case. Sometimes our senses lie to us.
Now for the issue that interests you most: the belief in no gods. I have already pointed out that the experience of immense evil -- eg the Holocaust -- and the absence of God in it, can lead one to doubt God. Many people lost faith then. And honestly, I don't care much about a god(s) who lets this sorts of things happen.
I suppose it boils down to: what do you expect from gods; how do you define the term. If gods are kind overseers and helpers in our live... They didn't show up when millions of innocents were being butchered in the camps. If gods are morally-neutral forces of nature such as gravity or electricity, they were there alright.
Sure enough, the experience of evil can be interpreted differently. Some rabbis have proposed the interpretation that Hitler was acting on behalf of, or as part of a larger scheme from God to gather 'his people' back in Palestine. A sort of anti Bar Kokhba war. I find the idea obscene.