(September 29, 2013 at 5:11 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Is it too hard to understand that, if you do not believe in the existence of a god, then.... you do not believe in the existence of a god!?I'm really not interested in debating the definition of atheism.
An atheist is a person who does not believe in the existence of a god.
Hence, even that neutral position is an atheist one.
If you're not even aware of the possibility of the existence of a god, then you do not believe in the existence of a god.
You can then superimpose several degrees of certainty that a person has on either positions. With that, you can construct a scale of belief.
One famous is the Dawkins scale... but there may be others:
- Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: "I do not believe, I know."
- De facto theist. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. "I don't know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there."
- Leaning towards theism. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. "I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God."
- Completely impartial. Exactly 50 per cent. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable."
- Leaning towards Agnosticism. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. "I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical."
- De facto atheist. Very low probability, but short of zero. "I don't know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."
- Strong atheist. "I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung knows there is one."
But while Dawkins' scale looks completely arbitrary, there's something interesting about it. Most people, I imagine would be 6/7. Ie, a "De Facto" atheist.