(November 24, 2015 at 12:08 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: Interesting scale. I'd say 6 is more like the second option up top, but I guess it depends on how you look at it. Thanks for answering, my love.
I t does depend on how you look at it. Your scale, IMO, spans the 4 to 7 range on the Dawkins Scale with the middle three options spanning some interpretation of the criteria for a 5 and a 6. This is sort of how I see your scale mapping (the number is the Dawkins Scale number):
Quote:(7) There is no God, and I am certain of this.
(High 6) I firmly believe there is no God, but there is a teeny tiny possibility I could be wrong.
(Low 6) I believe there is no God, but there is a possibility I could be wrong.
(5 or 6 depending on interpretation) I really don't know if there is a God or not, but since I have not yet seen any evidence, I live my life as though there isn't.*
(4) I have no idea one way or the other, and am always weighing both possibilities in my head.
I say I'm a solid six because I'm not inclined to be skeptical, I've extremely skeptical given the long history of god-claims being debunked, so to speak. Every time in history to date that a theistic claim has come under serious scientific scrutiny it has either been conclusively shown that the claim has a natural cause (lightening instead of god's wrath, mental illness instead of demons, germ theory of disease instead of curses, etc.) or no cause has yet been found, so to claim god as the cause of that phenomenon is an argument from ignorance. At the same time I cannot call myself a 7 because that's philosophically and evidentially unjustifiable (as unjustifiable to me as a theist claiming to be a 1), so I'm a 6. (Depending on the day and how crotchety I'm feeling, I could be a 6.9, a 6.5 or even a 5.5)
Until the trend of finding natural explanations for things claimed as the will or act of a god suddenly begins to reverse, then I kind of don't have a choice in the matter.
(November 24, 2015 at 12:17 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: At this point in my life I feel certain that God is real. But I have had doubts before.
So in Dawkins Scale speak you'd be a 1 or 2? Or maybe a 1.0000000001
Quote:But I have had doubts before.
Why did you doubt? Did you just feel less certain or was there a formal, argumentative reason (for instance, Problem of Evil)?
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.