(June 4, 2010 at 1:03 pm)Caecilian Wrote: Okay, I'll re-phrase that. What is one supposed to do with the scale? What purpose or use does it have?The purpose? It was developed to be a more accurate scale than the Dawkins one, which was being used all over the internet, despite the fact it makes little to no sense and is biased. It's a scale that allows you to compare basic beliefs concerning the existence of God in terms of the strength of those beliefs (via agnosticism / gnosticism).
The only real use for a scale of religious belief that I can think of is for surveys of what people believe in.
And for that purpose, the scale seems to me to be asking the wrong question. But maybe you had some other use in mind.
The reason we didn't include a measure of certainty is because it is a very subjective measure. To give you an example, one person might rate themselves a 4.99, whilst another person could rate themselves a 4.5. From a scale point of view, the 4.99 has more "certainty" than the 4.5, but this might not be the case. It might be that the 4.5 is using a different way of representing his certainty (i.e. anything above 4.5 is very certain, anything below is not as certain).
When you allow people to choose their own sub-scale points, you will undoubtedly run into problems. Is there any difference between a 4.99 and a 4.999999? Perhaps not in terms of the actual level of certainty espoused by the people, but the scale would assert that the latter person is "more certain".
This is why I am convinced that asking simple questions like "Do you believe in God?" and "Do you think God's existence can be conclusively established?" (i.e. Yes or No questions) are a good way of making an accurate scale. Like I said to Purple Rabbit, I'm prepared to try and make a more "fuller" scale with anyone if they want to; I won't do it alone lest I be accused of putting my own "personal spin" on it again, so contact me if you want to do it.
