Questions regarding religious and scientific epistemology
Which religion is closest to your own beliefs?
| 8% (7) | Catholic | |
|---|---|---|
| 2% (2) | Eastern Orthodox | |
| 10% (8) | Evangelical Christian | |
| 10% (8) | Liberal/Mainline Protestant Christian | |
| 0% (0) | Judaism | |
| 1% (1) | Islam | |
| 2% (2) | Buddhism | |
| 0% (0) | Hinduism | |
| 1% (1) | New Age/Neo-Paganism | |
| 2% (2) | Deist | |
| 12% (10) | Agnostic | |
| 37% (29) | Atheist | |
| 10% (8) | Other/Not Sure |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you believe that the existence of God can be proven?
| 21% (17) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 66% (52) | No | |
| 11% (9) | Unsure |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you believe that it is possible to prove that God does not exist?
| 19% (15) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 73% (57) | No | |
| 7% (6) | Unsure |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you believe that faith is something fundamentally irrational?
| 37% (29) | Yes, there are no grounds for faith. Faith is against reason. | |
|---|---|---|
| 46% (36) | Some forms of faith are irrational, but it is possible to have probable and/or pragmatic grounds for faith. | |
| 15% (12) | No, faith is based on facts of reason and history. It is possible to prove that religious beliefs are objectively and factually true. | |
| 1% (1) | Not sure/Other |
78 voters have answered this question.
Have you ever studied philosophy of religion (e.g. proofs for God's existence, the nature of religious language & experience, the problem of evil, etc.)?
| 78% (61) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 15% (12) | No | |
| 6% (5) | Not sure/Can't remember |
78 voters have answered this question.
Have you ever studied the philosophy and history of science (e.g. the scientific method, the nature of scientific enquiry, realism/anti realism debate, history and development of scientific paradigms, etc.)?
| 83% (65) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 14% (11) | No | |
| 2% (2) | Not Sure/can't remember |
78 voters have answered this question.
As a solution to the creation/evolution debate, what do you think of the idea of requiring all public high school students to take one course in symbolic logic/deductive reason and one course in the history and methodology of science? On this model, the creation/evolution debate would be discussed in the philosophy/history of science course and not in the biology courses.
| 57% (45) | Good idea. | |
|---|---|---|
| 19% (15) | Bad idea. | |
| 23% (18) | Not sure/Perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
If you voted "bad idea," or not sure on the last quesion, then what would you propose as a suitable science/critical thinking curriculum for high school students?
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16 voters have answered this question.
Do you think that some atheists are too dogmatic and uncritical of science? In other words, do you think that it is possible to embrace "scientism" as a kind of pseudo-religion?
| 42% (33) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 42% (33) | No | |
| 15% (12) | Not sure/perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
Which answer most closely identifies your epistemological point of view (i.e. your answer to the questions of whether we can gain any knowledge and how we gain that knowledge)?
| 0% (0) | Complete skeptic (we have no knowledge of anything) | |
|---|---|---|
| 23% (18) | Moderately skeptical (we can have some probable knowledge of the universe, but no certitude) | |
| 25% (20) | Non-Positivistic Empiricist (all of our knowledge is gained through sense experience, but this can include religious/moral/asthetic experience in addition to basic facts gained by empirical observation) | |
| 23% (18) | Positivist (We can gain certain knowledge of the universe, but only through the empirical sciences and mathematics, i.e. only scientific knowledge counts as knowledge) | |
| 12% (10) | Rationalist/Platonist (The world experienced by our senses is illusory, but we can gain true knowledge of reality through innate logical ideas in the mind) | |
| 2% (2) | Divine Revelation (Revelation from God is the primary and/or only way of gaining true and certain knowledge) | |
| 12% (10) | Other/Not sure |
78 voters have answered this question.
If you answered "Other/Not Sure" or if you were unhappy with the choices for the last question, then please feel free to make some comments or explain your point of view here.
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7 voters have answered this question.
Do you agree with this statement? "It is an hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise."
| 43% (34) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 38% (30) | No | |
| 17% (14) | Not Sure/Perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you agree with this statement? "Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement."
| 37% (29) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 29% (23) | No | |
| 33% (26) | Not Sure/Perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you agree with this statement? "Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again."
| 7% (6) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 78% (61) | No | |
| 14% (11) | Not sure/perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
Do you agree with this statement? "The limits of my language means the limits of my world."
| 17% (14) | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| 57% (45) | No | |
| 24% (19) | Not sure/perhaps |
78 voters have answered this question.
Without cheating, can you guess whose quotes these are?
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38 voters have answered this question.
This poll was created on 2009-06-06 16:03:57
by Librarian_Ponderer
