The God Delusion Index

February 1, 2008 By Guest Contributor 29 Comments

Edward Current created a video that calculates your “God Delusion Index”:

Where do you fall on a spectrum that ranges from “normal” to… well, you’ll see…

(Thanks to Maria for the link!)


[tags]atheist, atheism, Christian, religion[/tags]

Filed Under: General 29 Comments
  • Aj

    That’s pretty awesome.

  • atheos

    Cute, but #5 does not necessarily involve the supernatural. You can certainly get insights from meditation that you might not otherwise have. Similarly, you can have dreams that solve your problems. It’s not an external source, it’s all right there in your brain.

  • I like tea

    Cute, but #5 does not necessarily involve the supernatural. You can certainly get insights from meditation that you might not otherwise have. Similarly, you can have dreams that solve your problems. It’s not an external source, it’s all right there in your brain.

    I barely agree, in that meditation need not involve the supernatural. However, the question said knowledge, not insight into your life’s problems. In either case, I’m not convinced that meditation grants a person access to knowledge or insights that are unreachable via normal thought.

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  • http://www.otmatheist.com/ Siamang

    40 points for me.

    I thought it was funny the “score inflation” that went on as the video progressed.

  • Spurs Fan

    Atheos,

    I also leaned toward yes to #5, but that still gives me a grand total of 5 points, putting me well within the range of “normal”.

  • atheos

    I’m not talking about my “life problems” but actual concrete problems requiring concrete solutions.

    Nor did I say the knowledge was unreachable during normal thought. Just that sometimes one can tap into the brain’s potential in other ways.

    Here is a site listing a number of famous dreams that resulted in discoveries or creativity: http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/famous-dreams.htm (ignore the Lincoln anecdote and the nonsense claims). It seems likely that meditation could lead to a similar state of enhanced creativity. Sometimes the conscious mind may actually inhibit creativity since we “know” certain things that we have learned or been taught and may not pursue answers that don’t align with that formal education.

  • Mriana

    I scored a perfect 0, believe it or not. However, I think some of the questions are a bit problematic, in that one might agree with one part, but not the other. I test this theory on my older son. He had trouble with some of them for the same reasons, however, he scored the Badshit crazy deal though. :lol:

    Secret: The answer is no, if you can’t agree with all of it. Obviously, I figured that out with the very first question.

  • The Unbrainwashed

    I’m curious what Mike’s God Delusion index is.

  • Mriana

    Oh yes! I’d love to see him take it and find out his score. Except, I already told him the secret. :(

  • http://www.otmatheist.com/ Siamang

    Mike always comes out zero on all those tests. The questions are at right angles to his way of seeing things, I think.

  • http://religiouscomics.net Jeff

    I scored 5 points (question 5) so I’m normal. I suspect, though, that most people in the church I attend would be profoundly deluded (and proud of it).

  • Maria

    between 20 and 45-one question I’d answer a maybe to, with it 45, without it 20.

  • julie marie

    45. And just so all you who labor to reach fundies with reason can see you do no labor in vain, in 2006 I was batshit crazy.

  • Arlen

    I don’t see how this sort of thing is very helpful . It certainly doesn’t promote tolerance or mutual understanding. This is just an excuse for the anti-religious to pat themselves on the back. The video offers no reason for a religious person who see this not to reject it out of hand. There are no arguments here, just condemnation of those who have a different outlook from the author.

    I think this sort of thing is antithetical to what both Christians and atheists need to be promoting.

  • Aj

    atheos,

    Nor did I say the knowledge was unreachable during normal thought. Just that sometimes one can tap into the brain’s potential in other ways.

    You’re not using “knowledge” the same way as the question intended. It’s not talking about insight or thinking. It’s talking about knowledge of the outside from contemplation within, e.g. from knowing where kidnapped children are in the present to seeing the future (Sylvia Browne), or knowing that God exists. It’s not talking about Decartes contemplating oven, e.g. “I think therefore I am”.

    Siamang,

    Mike always comes out zero on all those tests. The questions are at right angles to his way of seeing things, I think.

    Well that’s certainly an interesting theory about why Mike doesn’t answer questions. There’s a much more simple one though.

    Arlen,

    I don’t see how this sort of thing is very helpful . It certainly doesn’t promote tolerance or mutual understanding.

    The God Delusion isn’t about promoting tolerance of faith. Tolerance is not a general goal worth persuing, that’s madness, it’s a meaningless buzzword. The video sends a clear message that a religious person should read loud and clear, and if that’s not promoting understanding, I don’t know what is.

    There are no arguments here, just condemnation of those who have a different outlook from the author.

    To be fair to the author, it’s named “The God Delusion Index” and Richard Dawkins is mentioned at the end.

    I think this sort of thing is antithetical to what both Christians and atheists need to be promoting.

    Which is your real point, the talk about tolerance, understanding, and lack of arguments was disingenuous.

  • http://mollishka.blogspot.com mollishka

    @I like tea: re question #5: Say someone has an insight to some mathematical proof while in meditation. This is clearly a new insight which directly leads to “new” knowledge (e.g., a theorem), even though it comes just from their brain. Meditation is simply a different state of thinking, and as such it can sometimes lead to new insights and thus knowledge.

  • Sbohs

    Thank god I scored a zero

  • Eliza

    I got 0 to 15, depending on how much leeway I gave to the conditional “may” in questions 2 and 5.

    It was funny, but also rude, how the scores ballooned near the end & his labeling of looniness followed suit. NOT a link I would send to my inlaws…

  • Chris

    I got 10. Good to know I’m not Batshit Crazy!

    Did you anyone ever wonder what “batshit” really was? And why is it so crazy? :-P

  • Arlen

    Aj:

    Tolerance is not a general goal worth persuing, that’s madness

    Oy.

    To be fair to the author, it’s named “The God Delusion Index” and Richard Dawkins is mentioned at the end.

    I haven’t gotten around to reading The God Delusion yet, so I’m unfamiliar with its stance on these things. If it really does reject tolerance and understanding I probably won’t bother. I’m not very interested in wasting my time with the anti-theist version of Ann Coulter… or any version of Ann Coulter for that matter.

  • Bartlett

    @I like tea: re question #5: Say someone has an insight to some mathematical proof while in meditation. This is clearly a new insight which directly leads to “new” knowledge (e.g., a theorem), even though it comes just from their brain. Meditation is simply a different state of thinking, and as such it can sometimes lead to new insights and thus knowledge.

    The speaker clarified exactly what he meant when he said “not attainable through ordinary thought”. Discovering a mathematical proof counts as ‘ordinary’ thinking regardless of what you happen to be doing at the time, Maths is just pure logic. When he invoked meditation specifically he was clearly taking about prophesy or other miraculous insights impossible to reach by logical progression i.e An invariably reliable, specific and indisputably accurate foretelling of the outcome of fundamentally stoichiometric future events.

  • Aj

    I haven’t gotten around to reading The God Delusion yet, so I’m unfamiliar with its stance on these things. If it really does reject tolerance and understanding I probably won’t bother. I’m not very interested in wasting my time with the anti-theist version of Ann Coulter… or any version of Ann Coulter for that matter.

    You’re throwing around the words tolerance and understanding, but I really have no idea what you mean. The God Delusion definitely does not tolerate religiously motivated violence, the labels and indoctrination of faith imposed on children, and religious control on government and law. Richard Dawkins has much understanding of the positions he’s arguing against in the book, and of much more.

    I think you will find a remarkable difference between Dawkins and Coulter. Coulter, who to me seems shallow of thought, demented in hate, and enjoys writing on matters in complete ignorance.

  • Maria

    Just curious Hemant, what did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?

  • http://friendlyatheist.com Hemant Mehta

    Just curious Hemant, what did you get, if you don’t mind me asking?

    I got a 0! (Surprise, surprise)

  • Mriana

    Doesn’t surprise me. If I could get a 0, then why not you too? :)

  • Alexandre

    I got a happy round 0 :)

  • Richard Wade

    Got zero. Years ago I would have answered “yes” to the insight from meditation question, but after practicing it for many years the only “insight” I got was that was what was making my knees hurt so much.

  • http://www.chickengirl.net/ Chicken Girl

    Perfect zero for me as well. I waffled a little bit on the meditation question, but like others here I reasoned he was referring to supernatural-type “revelations” rather than “oh hey! that’s how that mathematical proof works!”

    I don’t believe there’s any kind of “brainstorm” that you could get from meditation that you wouldn’t arrive at eventually from thinking normally. So, no, no, and no to that question.

    My boyfriend got 7.5 points due to, IMO, excessively liberal interpretations of the questions. ;)