Dawkins\' Scale (Agnosticism)

by romansh , Thursday, January 03, 2013, 19:01 (4130 days ago)
edited by unknown, Thursday, January 03, 2013, 19:14

For those who don't know it, here is Dawkins' scale. I cannot fault it.
Here's my take on the scale.
>1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: "I do not believe, I know."
This I think is fair enough, but I do think the choice of quote is horrible. The context I suspect completely misrepresents Jung's point of view in what we everyday conversation represent as god. For Jung god was very much a metaphor.
>2. 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."
What's a very high probability? 75%? How do I measure the probability? This might be the way Dawkins' and your mind works (dhw) but it certainly is not the way my mind works.
>3. Leaning towards theism. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. "I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God."
Err what's not very high
>4. Completely impartial. Exactly 50 per cent. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable."
This of course is not measurable from a scientific point of view. What are the error bars on this equiprobability? While I may have fallen into the same trap with my belief bubbles, agnosticism is not just about god. It is not just about the supposedly metaphysical. But it is about how we handle evidence.
>5. Leaning towards atheism. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. "I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical."
So dhw are you a #4 agnostic? If so where would you fall on the scale when broached with a literalist interpretation of god, say when compared to Spinoza's god? So what do we have to do is get ratings for every conceivable god and run a Monte carlo simulation to get a probability?
>6. 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."
So do you live your life as there is a god dhw? If so which one and how would it differ from Dawkins' life lived?
>7. Strong atheist. "I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung knows there is one."
Fair enough - just the Jung context bugs me.-
Regarding gnostic agnosticism (I know we cannot know). Speaking personally I have to keep reminding myself that all I can truly say is "I don't know". If I add "but I believe" then am I not committing the sin of fideism?-
>> [dhw] Our approach is quite different, but I am a simpler soul than you. For me, a moderate atheist would be one who is not TOTALLY convinced of God's non-existence, in which case he is allowing for some possibility that God does exist, so there is no mutual exclusion between atheism and agnosticism. -Then by your definition Dawkins is a moderate, is he not?->> [dhw] I likened Dawkins' arrogant intolerance to that of the religious fundamentalists he attacks.-You are missing my point here dhw. In what light should I perceive your attacks on Dawkins?