It has been several years since I first read Richard Dawkins, “The God Delusion”. At the time I read the book, I was already an atheist, but I thought that religion was still a force that produced mostly beneficial results. After reading the book, I no longer thought that religion was necessary at all.
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins formulated a seven-point belief scale from 1 (total theist) to 7 (total atheist).
Richard Dawkins Seven-Point Scale:
- Strong Theist: 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: “I do not believe, I know.”
- 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.”
- Leaning towards Theism: Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. “I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.”
- Completely Impartial: Exactly 50 per cent. “God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
- Strong Atheist: “I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung knows there is one.”
After reading Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, I have come to the conclusions that not only is religion unnecessary, religion is a force of evil in the world. The only way the humanity will be able to move forward will be for religion to be completely debunked and abolished.
Since Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and other modern atheists writers and scientists began directly challenging religion, a new description for atheists has started to be used: New Atheist. I have therefore modified the Seven-Point Scale by adding an 8th point.
The Bionichead Ten-Point Scale From Braindead Theism to Vehement Anti-Theism:
- Braindead Theist: I am 100% sure the gods exist. I have total FAITH in the gods. No amount of evidence disproving the existence of gods will ever change alter my beliefs. All such evidence is the devil’s work.
- Strong Theist: I am 100% sure the gods exist. I KNOW the gods exist.
- De-facto Theist: I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in the gods and I live my life on the assumption that they are there.
- Agnostic Theist: I cannot know whether the gods exist, but I am inclined to believe in deities.
- Pure Agnostic: God’s existence and non-existence are have the exact same degree of logical or mathematical probability. There is a 50/50 percent chance either way.
- Agnostic Atheist: I cannot know whether the gods exist, but I’m inclined to be skeptical.
- De-facto Atheist: I cannot know for certain, but I think the gods are very improbable and I live my life under the assumption that they are not there.
- Strong Atheist: I am 100% sure that there are no gods.
- New Atheist: Fuck the gods. I am 100% sure that there are no gods of any kind. I think religion is a disease. I would like to see all forms of religion abolished.
- Vehement Anti-Theist: “Even if there were a God, and this God came to me in the manner with which he visited Old Job, not only would I still count myself an Atheist, I would spit in God’s face, call him and imbecile and kill myself right in front of him… and do you know what…there is nothing he could do to stop me… there is nothing God could do to manipulate my free will to utterly and completely reject his plan for the universe, reject his version of Good and Evil, reject his justification of Suffering, his promise of Salvation, his bullshit poetry, his lunatic prophets , his idiot child molesting Priests, his impolite church ladies in fine dresses that never think an original thought in their lives, his useless crusades based on faith, his useless martyrdoms based on faith, his narcissistic urge to be worshiped, his neurotic jealousy at not being loved, his demand to be the one and only truth, his intolerance of human creativity, his intolerance of human instinct, his coercive sexual prohibitions, his passivity at the torture and death of innocent people, his passivity in allowing human development to fail, his passivity in not giving good counsel to those who prayed for it, his passivity for not intervening to save us from environmental disasters, his passivity in not saving us from starvation or greed or jealousy or hatred or slavery or any other imaginable nastiness this world has to offer…you see, I do not just ‘lack faith’ in a God, I utterly condemn and renounce all possible gods as demiurgical whispers of pure neurosis and evil… I utterly forsake the need to praise anything, either human or divine… I hate Humanity, I hate ignorance, I hate God, I hate hypocrisy, I hate religion, and I hate every speck of dust in this entire abysmal universe and I cry out to the unresponsive Heavens and in my perpetual misery and hysteria and anxiety and fear and dread and nausea over having been born, I cry out for this wretched dream to end… I cry out that no more torments should be visited upon mankind… I cry out that all life should end… that the entire cosmos should one day resolve upon an infinite and serene silence, never again to be troubled by the voice of man nor God nor woman either… just let it all cease to move, cease to feel, cease to burn, cease to explode, cease to dream, cease to wish, cease to pray, cease to love, cease to sing and cease to hope… because at bottom, my very worst and most inhuman complaint against God and the Universe is that I should feel or have felt any affinity for it whatsoever.”
Point 10 is taken from the Kindle book “Atheism is Winning” by Anonymous. The Kindle book is available as a free download at Amazon.com.