Thank you for that, Zen.
It is my opinion that anyone who says, "No gods** exist"...is making a blind guess every bit a much as anyone who says, "A GOD exists."
That is exactly right. ALL religions are based on a circular argument, with arguments extending from that. This itself is not a fallacy.
The other name for the circular argument is the Argument of Faith.
In other words, ALL religions are based on faith.
The Church of No God is just as much a religion as Christianity.
Attempting to prove a circular argument True or False causes the circular argument fallacy. This is what a fundamentalist does.
Maybe no gods exist; maybe one GOD exists; maybe many gods exist. Any of those things is possible. We simply do not know.
The statement of an atheist. You simply take no position on the matter.
The REALITY of existence is a very mysterious thing. There may come a time when the science of today will be regarded the way we currently regard "the science" of three thousand years ago.
It would be advantageous for you to study phenomenology, a branch of philosophy. This branch defines what 'real' means, and why.
Science itself not reality. Science is a set of falsifiable theories. A theory is an explanatory argument. An argument is a set of predicates and a conclusion. An argument that uses it's own conclusion as a predicate is a circular argument.
Now let's look at 'real'.
ALL you know of the world (except of your own existence), comes to you through your senses, even if one augments those senses with instrumentation, this is still true. Your brain must interpret these senses and connect them with how you figure the Universe works. To you, this is 'reality'. Thus, 'reality' is as unique to you as a fingerprint. It is different from mine. It is different from ZenMode. It is no different for me, or ZenMode, or anyone else wandering around this planet.
That said, there ARE common experiences that shape how we perceive the world. These come from the same type of school teachings, the same nation we live in, the same language we speak, etc. This produces some common aspects to our personal models of the Universe that we share.
Thus, there is no absolute 'real'. Real is simply your own personal model of how the Universe works, and it's different from anybody else's, even if it shares some aspects common to another with shared experiences.
This concept has been explored in some books and films as well. Since any good piece of fiction requires building a world of characters and how they relate, it is natural to explore how we each build our 'world view'.
One good series you might enjoy is The Day the Universe Changed. It's an old series, but he explores this very concept, building his final conclusion in the last episode of the nine part series. Throughout the series, he describes how technology, war, and institutionalizing changes how people perceive what is 'real'.
You, and others, may disagree with my opinion. Fine. We can live with that.
Because what is 'real' is unique to each of us, that's a given.
Unfortunately, a fundamentalist finds it difficult to realize this.
** When I use the words "GOD or gods" here, I mean "The entity (or entities) responsible for the creation of what we humans call 'the physical universe'...IF SUCH AN ENTITY OR ENTITIES ACTUALLY EXIST. I acknowledge that such an entity(s) may NOT exist.
The interesting thing about the Theory of Creation (not a theory of science, BTW!), is that it does not require a god or gods at all. It only states that life arrived on Earth through the action of some kind of intelligence.
For all we know, accepting this theory as True, is that Man is nothing more than the result of some aliens that had some horrible lab accident and they decided to dump it on Earth to get rid of it.
Or, it might be a god or gods responsible. We simply don't know, assuming acceptance of this theory.
Belief in a god or gods, but being unable to describe the character of such because you can't really know, is the position of an agnostic.
Not taking a position at all on whether a god or gods exist or not is the position of an atheist.
Claiming that no god or gods exist at all is a religion position. I call it the Church of No God. This is generally a fundamentalist style religion. Such believers are often fundamentalists, trying to prove their religion True. Their attempts often follow an attempt to prove a negative fallacy, an argument of ignorance fallacy, or that it's some kind of 'science' (ignoring what 'science' actually is). ZenMode has attempted all three approaches.
I don't care whether he believes there is no god. It's his fallacies I protest.