(October 6, 2013 at 7:41 am)xpastor Wrote: ..IMO it's idiotic to claim to be either a 1 or a 7 on Dawkins scale. Total certainty is a luxury we humans do not get to enjoy.
I very strongly disagree. The #7 on the Dawkins scale is 100% sure that there is no god. Atheistic forum members tend to read that in a bit too philosophically a manner. They take it to mean that there are ways a god could hide in mankind's pockets of ignorance. However, the scale should be read in the common social vernacular. We should rank the #7 scale with other common claims we would day to day say that we are 100% sure of.
I would quickly tell people that I am 100% sure that my name is "Brakeman's name." However I can quickly think of several ways I could be wrong about my own name. (Birth certificate snafu, switched at birth, etc.) All of these contingent ways have a higher likelihood of being true than does the god of the christians. Thus, as is commonly understood, the "Idiotic" stances are from anyone that ranks themselves a 1 though 6.
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