atheism survey i am doing research on atheism part of which involves field research here on the net the following is a survey directed towards all readers of this group intended to get data about the basis of atheistic belief i would seriously appreciate it if each and every one of you would fill it out and mail it back to me at mtabbott unix amherst edu first of all i ve tried to structure questions that can be answered in a variety of ways with varying amounts of detail it s possible to give succinct answers to most everything but there s enough here to keep most of you typing for hours i m sure as much detail as you want to give me i mean it is great but it s also important for me to have as broad a base of individuals as possible so even minimal responses are far better than nothing it s a short survey if you just answer the questions without elaboration secondly i hope some of the questions don t come off as obnoxious i know that phrases like what would convince you of the existence of god imply that i am a seminary student intent on proving you all to be ignorant godless heathens in fact i m not too sure about the existence of a higher power myself so my use of god is a question of locution rather than ideology it s easier than just repeating a deity or higher power every time also i tend to use a lot of anthropological buzzwords like belief system although i know some of you might contend that you don t have any beliefs but are skeptical towards everything i understand but you know what i mean think of such buzzwords as abbreviations for the rather unweildy phrases required to get the precise idea across lastly thanks please fill out as much as you can in as much detail as you can and send them to me my research and i thank you where would you place your beliefs on the spectrum theism agnosticism weak atheism strong atheism feel free to elaborate on your specific beliefs in what if any religious tradition were you raised did you ever believe in the existence of a god several of the following questions presume that the answer to this is yes if you ve always been an atheist or at least never a theist you may have to modify the question answer somewhat how serious was your your family s involvement how and when did you start to doubt the tenets you were raised to believe how and when did your final break with your beliefs if any occur i realize that this is often more of an ongoing process than an event per se whatever the case just describe it in whatever detail you wish what contact with other atheists have you had before and after and during your conversion to atheism certainly your involvement with alt atheism counts how have net discussions affected your beliefs to what extent do you think other atheists have influenced you in your beliefs did you come by your beliefs through discussion through independent means or by some combination of the two or other means are you convinced that your beliefs were acquired through wholly rational means proofs of the non existence of god etc or was it perhaps at least in part through other means alienation from mainstream religion etc to what extent do you feel you understand the universe through your beliefs what phenomena of the universe and of human existence anything from physical phenomena to the problem of the existence of evil in human affairs do you feel are adequately dealt with by your beliefs and where are they lacking as an explanatory method what would it take for you to question or change your beliefs what would convince you of the existence of god what would convince you of the plausibility of god s existence and so forth how dynamic are your beliefs are they constantly changing have they stayed more or less the same for some time are you involved in a career or education in science to what extent do you think science has influenced your beliefs issac asimov claimed that science was the new secular religion and that scientists are in a very real sense the new priesthood do you see the pursuit of science as having a quasi religious base or even a religious element this survey is intended to get data from a broad range of individuals but also to help me narrow down the field to a small group of people whose ideas and histories could be very useful to me would you be willing to have me on the basis of this survey write you to find out more about you and your beliefs if not fine your filling out the survey alone is great thanks again feel free to contact me if you have any questions about what i m doing with this data or if you have anything to say in addition to what i ve asked about above mark abbott mtabbott unix amherst ed
