Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: June 3, 2024, 12:47 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
How atheist are you?
#21
RE: How atheist are you?
I really am not a fan of this scale. Not only because it tries to quantify something that is constantly fluid and un-pin-down-able, but because it also further muddies the waters in terms of what the 'atheist' label means.

I can understand Dawkins wanting a useful abbreviation or indicator of someone's confidence of belief, but this is just a bit too unwieldy for my tastes.

I am 100% certain that I do not believe a god exists, but I do not claim to be certain that no god in fact exists. No idea where I'd be on a number scale.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
Reply
#22
RE: How atheist are you?
I don't understand what his point was of making this scale in the first place. Why the need to "measure" disbelief in something you find as silly as Santa Clause?
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly." 

-walsh
Reply
#23
RE: How atheist are you?
(December 8, 2017 at 11:20 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I don't understand what his point was of making this scale in the first place. Why the need to "measure" disbelief in something you find as silly as Santa Clause?

I think it's an attempt to have some sort of starting point to a discussion - like if I knew you were a 2 and I was a 6.5, that might frame our discussion/arguments better, whereas a discussion between a 3 and a 5 might be very different.

It's just not something that can be quantified or put on a ruler.  Dawkins is approaching it from a very scientific, quantifiable perspective - I just think it's not a useful way to do it.  Not to mention that if hardly anyone knows of the scale (let alone uses it), then it's not useful by definition.  It's not like I go up to every theist and ask them what number they are on the scale, I just ask them what they believe and why.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
Reply
#24
RE: How atheist are you?
On a scale of 1-7 I would guess I'm around a billion billion billion billion.
You are currently experiencing a lucky and very brief window of awareness, sandwiched in between two periods of timeless and utter nothingness. So why not make the most of it, and stop wasting your life away trying to convince other people that there is something else? The reality is obvious.

Reply
#25
RE: How atheist are you?
In a  nutshell, I'm uninterested in the scale in the op.  Regarding religious matters, I would  say that it has no meaning or value to me: it is not my  path, and it is not who I am; however, in the interest of peacefully co-existing with those who are different than me, I will respect those who wish to hold religious beliefs, provided that they do so in a peaceful and civil manner (I would also expect them to hold me to this same standard in terms of my non-belief and to let me know if I'm failing to live up to it).











Reply
#26
RE: How atheist are you?
(December 8, 2017 at 11:40 am)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote: In a  nutshell, I'm uninterested in the scale in the op.  Regarding religious matters, I would  say that it has no meaning or value to me: it is not my  path, and it is not who I am; however, in the interest of peacefully co-existing with those who are different than me, I will respect those who wish to hold religious beliefs, provided that they do so in a peaceful and civil manner (I would also expect them to hold me to this same standard in terms of my non-belief and to let me know if I'm failing to live up to it).

Classy as always.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly." 

-walsh
Reply
#27
RE: How atheist are you?
(December 8, 2017 at 11:40 am)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote: In a  nutshell, I'm uninterested in the scale in the op.  Regarding religious matters, I would  say that it has no meaning or value to me: it is not my  path, and it is not who I am; however, in the interest of peacefully co-existing with those who are different than me, I will respect those who wish to hold religious beliefs, provided that they do so in a peaceful and civil manner (I would also expect them to hold me to this same standard in terms of my non-belief and to let me know if I'm failing to live up to it).

0 to 7 we could use simple analitics to create an octal framework for math. I prefer decimal.

Perhaps the OP is trying to infer a continuum. Well, it is possible as long as one has 2 digits.

But I diverge. Agreed.
Reply
#28
Rainbow 
RE: How atheist are you?
Agnostic atheist, but with the proviso that what I see of whatever people call a "god", it is pretty obviously made up.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
Reply
#29
RE: How atheist are you?
The much more interesting and more well-defined question is whether there is a meaningful afterlife. Put me down with a 6.99 on the no side based on the evidence. God is too ill defined a thing to say something concrete about.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

Reply
#30
RE: How atheist are you?
I’d say I’m a 5 and 1/2

I do not know whether God exists but I operate under the assumption that he doesn’t.
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
Religious Views: He gay

0/10

Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Closet Atheist Coming Out and Telling Family and Friends You're An Atheist Cholley71 10 7147 September 27, 2016 at 1:01 am
Last Post: Minimalist



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)