Godless Wednesday: The Dawkins Scale

Where do you place yourself on the Dawkins' Scale? The scale was presented by noted atheist Richard Dawkins in his classic book The God Delusion. Even Dawkins describes himself as a 6 or a 6.9 and refers to the scale as a "spectrum of theistic probability." The reason why Dawkins doesn't put himself as a 7 is because the atheist position relies on the fact that there is no evidence that God exists, but being rational always allows for the possibility that such evidence could be presented or discovered at any time, thus making the "100% sure" a difficult position to embrace. But this puts atheists at a distinct disadvantage when conducting arguments with people lower on the scale, since those people do not apply the same principles to their position.

I think I would put myself at a 7. Previously I would have put myself at a 5 or 6, but as the corrosive effects on society of the number of people who publicly portray themselves as 1 has become more apparent to me, I think it is more and more important that those people be counter-balanced by equally visible people at the other end of the scale.

Apart from this political rationale, I also am very very confident that there is no such being as "God" as Christians, Jews and Muslims who would classify themselves as "1" on the Dawkins' Scale all believe in. It is pretty obvious that no single "God" would eet all the characteristics that these competing faiths indicate that "he" must have. So, that is another reason why I am confident about declaring myself a "7" on Dawkins' Scale.

So, where would you put yourself on the Dawkins' Scale?

Hat/tip to Unreasonable Faith