Degrees of Atheism/Agnosticism

[Speck Tater]

There have been a number of heated debates here about what it means to be a Theist vs an Atheist vs an Agnostic. For some reason, as I was dozing off last night, it occurred to me that what we need here, instead of arguing the semantics of slippery words, is a numerical degree on a theism-atheism spectrum. Something like this, perhaps:

1. I believe that there definitely is a God.
2. I believe that it is very likely that God exists, but I am not certain.
3. I believe that it is more likely that God exists than that He/It does not.
4. I believe that God may or may not exist, with no particular preference for either possibility.
5. I believe that it is more likely that God does not exist than that He/It does.
6. I believe that it is very unlikely that any God exists.
7. I believe that God definitely does not.

FWIW: I score myself a definite and solid 4 on this scale.

[Mojambo]

1. I tell people I'm an Apatheist if unprovoked.

I become a hardcore atheist if you get up in my shit.

[Iggo]

7. And now I say that, too.

Thank you.

[moobu2]

2. 7

[rug]

3. 1

[Birthmark]

4. 7 -if you're using big "G" God

That's a catch-all phrase.

6.5 if you mean gods of any type. The Birthmark Hypothesis states that "any sufficiently defined god can either be proven non-existent or irrelevant."

The non-existence is usually through self-contradiction.

The irrelevance is usually due to a god becoming indistinguishable from nature, meaning it makes no discernible difference whether or not that god exists.

[Silent3]

5. 6

Maybe more like 6.5. :)

Of course, playing around with definitions of God can shift that value a bit, but the number only drops for me by introducing meanings for God for which there are better words which don't carry so much unnecessary baggage, or meanings so vague as to not have very much conceptual value.

Edit: Make that 6.9999 for the literal God of the Bible, or any sort of God close to that.

[BadgerKid]

6. 1 & 5

Choice 5 for the reason that the laws of physics, as we know them now, make it unlikely. As far as we know, no one has the ability, for example, to telekinetically control weather patterns or perform alchemical transformations, etc. Since there may still be more laws to discover, I suppose god as a supernatural being cannot be strictly ruled out.

Choice 1 for the reason that, as I believe, god might refer to the collection of relationships among everything in Nature. For example, as sentient beings, we have the capability to help each other through the human condition without context of a supernatural godlike being.

[cambie]

8. All these complex definitions

based on "theist" and "gnostic". How is someone who is unable to comprehend the terms going to relate to the definitions? They are words invented by, and comprehensible only to, Theists and Gnostics.

[darkstar3]

9. It's actually secret option 6.5

I don't believe in any gods, capital 'G' or otherwise. Their existence is completely unprovable, their effect on my life is non-existent, and therefore the very question of a god is completely irrelevant to my continued existence, even aside from the presuppositions of the question itself.

If I wasn't feeling so darn contrary, I'd probably answer 6 and be done with it, except for the fact that I take issue with the phrase "I believe" being applied to me, unless it's followed by the phrase "I'll have a scotch."

[iris27]

20. +1 to every

single word of this post. :toast:

[ZombieHorde]

10. Your list does not have agnosticism on it, only theism and atheism.

Agnosticism is about knowledge, while your poll is about belief.

[RebelOne]

11. Definitely a 7 here.

[trotsky]

12. Let the theist define his or her god first.

Then I'll tell you where I'm at from 1-7.

[MineralMan]

13. There's a problem with this list.

I am an atheist.

I do not believe that any deities or other supernatural entities exist.

My atheism is not believing. Your list is all about belief, not disbelief. It's a common error.

[BurtWorm]

16. Excellent point.

If pressed on what I believe about god's existence, I'll say I believe there is no god. But essentially I just don't believe in a god or gods. (Though I prefer to think the choice is between lots of gods or no gods because most human cultures have had polytheistic religions. Monotheism seems like a great big fraud to me.)

[MineralMan]

17. Well, perhaps we'd be better off with Zeus and Thor and their

cohorts. Or the Hindu pantheon. A god for everyone in those systems.

[GliderGuider]

14. How are you defining "God"?

There are a lot of "god-like" concepts that don't involve an anthropomorphic, paternalistic, omniscient, omnipotent, dualistic creator-being.

My definition falls somewhere between the pantheistic "god is the totality of everything" and the "Absolute" of the Perennial Philosophy. But I get the impression that's not how you were thinking of god when you wrote your list.

[54anickel]

18. Very good question - points to the crux of this sort of discussion. n/t

[BurtWorm]

15. 7

[skepticscott]

19. Your list fails

on several grounds, first of which is that it tries to shoehorn atheism into one of your "believe" categories, when the very nature of atheism precludes that. To include atheism, you should include a category "I find no evidence that anything qualifying as a god exists". This of course points out your second flaw, the failure to even define what qualifies as a "god", and attendant to that, which one you're talking about in this list. Some of your categories talk only of "God", by which you presumably mean the Judeo-Christian God, while others talk about "a God" or "any God", which seems to indicate that you're opening things up to all other possibilities.