Dawkins’ Spectrum of The Existence of God
This is taken from Richard Dawkins’ book: The GOD Delusion.
The spectrum represents human judgment about the existence of God. It is continuous between two extremes of opposite certainty, where 1 represents certainty of the existence of God and 7 represents certainty of the non-existence of God. Points 2 through 6 simply represent milestones along the way.
For example, Richard Dawkins places himself at 6.9, whereas the Pope, being infallible, would probably place himself at 1. If you are agnostic but leaning very slightly to non-belief, you might put yourself at 4.2.
Where are you?
| Point | Description |
|
1 |
Strong theist. 100% probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, ‘I do not believe, I know.’ |
|
2 |
Very high probability but short of 100%. De facto theist. ‘I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life as though he is there.’ |
|
3 |
Higher than 50% but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. ‘I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.’ |
|
4 |
Exactly 50%. Completely impartial agnostic. ‘God’s existence and non-existence are equally probable.’ |
|
5 |
Lower than 50% but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. ‘I don’t know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical.’ |
|
6 |
Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.’ |
|
7 |
Strong atheist. ‘I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung ‘knows’ there is one.’ |
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