Metapoll: What options should a religion poll have?

[Tee Kay]

My Options (filling in all 25 options):

1. Strong Atheist
2. Weak Atheist
3. Strong Agnostic
4. Weak Agnostic
5. Christian - Catholic
6. Christian - Orthodox
7. Christian - Protestant
8. Christian - Others
9. Muslim - Sunni
10. Muslim - Shia
11. Muslim - Others
12. Jewish
13. Hindu
14. Bahai
15. Sikh
16. Jain
17. Buddhist - Hinayana
18. Buddhist - Mahayana
19. Buddhist - Others
20. Chinese Religions
21. Shinto
23. Zoroastrianism
24. Traditional Religions
25. Others.

Not many people at CFC would select Options 9 to 25, if any, but I felt they should be included anyway.

 

[dutchfire]

Strong Atheist - God cannot exist (for the commonly accepted value of "God")
Weak Atheist - God is probably false (ditto)
Strong Agnostic - I consider it impossible to become certain regarding God
Weak Agnostic - I am seeking (increased) certainty regarding God
Catholic Christian
Protestant Christian
Orthodox Christian
Mormon
Other Christian
Jewish
Muslim
Buddhist
Hinduist
Deist
Other

I wouldn't put Jews and Muslims together, since it's pretty interesting how many of each of those there are.

 

[Mirc]

Tailless' options are by far the best so far, IMO!

 

[dutchfire]

They're quite good, but I'd add in Mormon instead of one of the options 14-24. We have way more Mormons here than, say, Zoroastrianists.

 

[Camikaze]

If you're actually trying to cover the bases, then tailless' options are pretty good. If you're trying to survey CFC, though, I'd probably focus less on Islam, and some of the others, like Shinto and Jain, and go for Mormonism, and different types of Protestantism.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

The poll question needs to be worded in such a way that it doesn't use the word "religion" at all because it seems like 90% of the discussion in these threads is over whether or not it is fair to call atheism/agnosticism a "religion". Something like "Which of the following best describes you?" which also takes into account the fact that no one can be labelled that easily.

Also, in the population as a whole Buddhists, Hindus etc. far outnumber the nonreligious, but here it is the reverse. Having several non-religious categories (strong atheist, weak atheist, apatheist, strong agnostic, weak agnostic, etc.) is more useful than having 3 kinds of Buddhism, even if the distinction is more important to Buddhism as a whole. I am not even sure there are enough Muslims to justify having both Sunni and Shi'a, even if the difference is important.

 

[Shekwan]

Replace "Catholism" with any other Christian denomination and count me in!
And I agree, just make an all-Christian-option and everybody could make the right choice that way.

Um no because no other religion is the true faith. None of the Protestant religions have a guy who can talk to God who says so, do they?

Protestant=non-Catholic?

You have 25 options. Might as well use them...

EDIT: Wait, so you think there's more difference between weak and strong agnostics than between catholics and protestants? ...

Well all I know is that "weak agnostics" probably make up 99% of the church going population. You'd have to be an uncertain person to be "weak agnostic", exactly the type of people the religious types can draw in easily.

They're quite good, but I'd add in Mormon instead of one of the options 14-24. We have way more Mormons here than, say, Zoroastrianists.

Yeah, dunno why Zoroastrianism is in there. Just cos it sounds cool I guess?

 

[kuukkeli]

Strong Atheist - I believe that God does not exist
Weak Atheist - I do not believe that God exists
Strong Agnostic - I believe that it is impossible to know whether God exists
Weak Agnostic - I am not sure if God exists or not

I think that just Atheist and Agnostic are enough. Personally I see no difference between your weak and strong atheists ("believe NOT-A" is equal to "NOT-believe A"). With agnosticism the point is uncertainty and the philosophical questions about the nature of that uncertainty don't seem to offer anything of value to such a poll.

The classification schemes all suck. The diffference between an atheist and an agnostic is pretty much how much they're willing to piss off Christians.

Kind of. In my opinion the difference is whether one considers gods plausible enough to warrant them a benefit of doubt (for atheist the very idea of god seems ridiculous while agnostic is willing to accept the notion itself).

The poll question needs to be worded in such a way that it doesn't use the word "religion" at all because it seems like 90% of the discussion in these threads is over whether or not it is fair to call atheism/agnosticism a "religion". Something like "Which of the following best describes you?" which also takes into account the fact that no one can be labelled that easily.

That seems like a smart idea.

 

[warpus]

I think that just Atheist and Agnostic are enough.

There is a huge difference between the two types of Atheist.

Personally I see no difference between your weak and strong atheists ("believe NOT-A" is equal to "NOT-believe A").

If you do not believe something to be true, you do not automatically believe that its logical opposite is true.

For example..

I do not believe that God exists, making me an atheist.. Yet, I do not want to say "I believe that God doesn't exist", because I am not convinced enough of the fact to say "I believe this to be true".

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

(for atheist the very idea of god seems ridiculous).

I am not sure this is true, although IANAA.

 

[Gooblah]

I would say...
1 Muslim (Shia)
2 Muslim (Sunni)
3 Christian (Catholic)
4 Christian (Orthodox)
5 Christian (Protestant)
6 Christian (Mormon)
7 Jewish
8 Hindu
9 Buddhist
10 Confucian
11 Daoist
12 Shinto
13 Sikh
14 Tribal (African)
15 Tribal (Native American)
16 Polytheistic (Middle-Eastern)
17 Polytheistic (European)
18 Zoroastrian
19 Agnostic (Strong)
20 Agnostic (Weak)
21 Mix of above
22 Atheist (Strong)
23 Atheist (Weak)
24 Other

Seems right, and it leaves room for one more. Also, anyone who puts 'Hinduist' or 'Judaist' should be hanged.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

How many tribal Mesoamericans post here?

 

[Gooblah]

How many tribal Mesoamericans post here?

I dunno...also, you remind me that I need to include Mormons in the poll. Hold on.... (Edit done).

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

It's just that any option which gets 0 serious votes isn't really that useful.

 

[kuukkeli]

There is a huge difference between the two types of Atheist.

I disagree.

If you do not believe something to be true, you do not automatically believe that its logical opposite is true.

If, as is true with the question of god's existence, there are only two options, TRUE or FALSE, then that's exactly what follows. By NOT believing that something is TRUE equals to believing it being FALSE. By refusing to do that you're stating uncertainty, making the original NOT into POSSIBLY NOT and that isn't atheism, it's agnosticism.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

1. Christian (Catholic)
2. Christian (Protestant)
3. Christian (Orthodox)
4. Christian (Mormon)
5. Christian (Other)
6. Muslim (Sunni)
7. Muslim (Shi'a)
8. Muslim (Other)
9. Jewish
10. Hindu
11. Buddhist (Hinayana/Theravada)
12. Buddhist (Mahayana)
13. Buddhist (Other)
14. Confucian
15. Daoist
16. Sikh
17. Bahai
18. Shinto
19. Polytheistic
20. Other Religious
21. Agnostic (Strong)
22. Agnostic (Weak)
23. Atheist (Strong)
24. Atheist (Weak)
25. Other Irreligious

And allow for more than one option.

 

[Miles Teg]

^Endorsed.

We could change "Polytheistic" to "Traditional Polytheistic" or "Pagan" to clarify a bit though.

 

[warpus]

If, as is true with the question of god's existence, there are only two options, TRUE or FALSE, then that's exactly what follows. By NOT believing that something is TRUE equals to believing it being FALSE. By refusing to do that you're stating uncertainty, making the original NOT into POSSIBLY NOT and that isn't atheism, it's agnosticism.

Again, "Do not believe" does not imply "believe the opposite" as you seem to claim.

You do not disgagree with me because you disagree with the above (I mean, it is a logical fact, really). You disagree with me because your definition of atheism is incomplete.

As atheists you only include the people who believe that God does not exist. You are excluding those who have no such belief and grouping them with the agnostics, which is a rather simplified way to look at the whole atheism/agnosticism thing, and an incorrect one.

 

[Perfection]

Why the poop is it incorrect?

 

[bob bobato]

1. Christian (Catholic)
2. Christian (Protestant)
3. Christian (Orthodox)
4. Christian (Mormon)
5. Christian (Other)
6. Muslim (Sunni)
7. Muslim (Shi'a)
8. Muslim (Other)
9. Jewish
10. Hindu
11. Buddhist (Hinayana/Theravada)
12. Buddhist (Mahayana)
13. Buddhist (Other)
14. Confucian
15. Daoist
16. Sikh
17. Bahai
18. Shinto
19. Polytheistic
20. Other Religious
21. Agnostic (Strong)
22. Agnostic (Weak)
23. Atheist (Strong)
24. Atheist (Weak)
25. Other Irreligious

And allow for more than one option.

Is there any way you could have more than one poll on the same thread, so you could pick your religion and then how strongly you believe in it (ie, Catholic and weak agnostic)?