Friday, March 9, 2012

Seven Categories of Religious People

Richard Dawkins categorises people into seven categories, based on their religious beliefs and the probability which they assign to divine existence. This makes for curious reading and helps people understand what is meant by agnosticism.

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 on the assumption that 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 exactly equiprobable'.

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 sceptical'.

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'.

Source: The God Delusion by R. Dawkins

No comments: