(June 4, 2010 at 6:10 am)Caecilian Wrote: Something that remains unclear to me: what is the scale for? I agree with Adrian that a scale would be useful for surveys of religious belief. I also agree with purple rabbit that a scale adds nothing to debates about belief, and in fact would tend to muddy waters since it is impossible to fully capture peoples' often complex religious/ philosophical positions on a scale (of however many dimensions).
With regard to a possible survey question, I don't think that asking people whether there are arguments that conclusively (dis)prove god is the way to go. Unless you're going to survey a very specific group like priests or philosophers, the vast majority of the people who make up your sample simply won't know what arguments you're talking about. Much better to focus on certainty of belief.
For similar reasons, positions like ignosticism could probably be ignored for survey purposes- after all, how many people have even heard of ignosticism, let alone know what it is?
It's mk
Just Adrain having a mind blowout ...again...poor fellow
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5