Scale of Doubt Quiz

  1. Do you believe that a particular religious tradition holds accurate knowledge of the ultimate nature of reality and the purpose of human life?
    yes no not sure


  2. Do you believe that some thinking being consciously made the universe?
    yes no not sure


  3. Is there an identifiable force coursing through the universe, holding it together, or uniting all life-forms?
    yes no not sure


  4. Could prayer be in any way effective, that is, do you believe that such a being or force (as posited above) could ever be responsive to your thoughts or words?
    yes no not sure


  5. Do you believe this being or force can think or speak?
    yes no not sure


  6. Do you believe this being has a memory or can make plans?
    yes no not sure


  7. Does this force sometimes take a human form?
    yes no not sure


  8. Do you believe that the thinking part or animating force of a human being continues to exist after the body has died?
    yes no not sure


  9. Do you believe that any part of a human being survives death, elsewhere or here on earth?
    yes no not sure


  10. Do you believe that feelings about things should be admitted as evidence in establishing reality?

    yes no not sure


  11. Do you believe that love and inner feelings of morality suggest that there is a world beyond that of biology, social patterns, and accident — i.e., a realm of higher meaning?
    yes no not sure


  12. Do you believe that the world is not completely knowable by science?
    yes no not sure


  13. If someone were to say "The universe is nothing but an accidental pile of stuff, jostling around with no rhyme nor reason, and all life on earth is but a tiny, utterly inconsequential speck of nothing, in a corner of space, existing in the blink of an eye never to be judged, noticed, or remembered," would you say, "Now that's going a bit far, that's a bit wrongheaded?"
    yes no not sure



Reprinted from Doubt: A History (Harper SanFrancisco, 2003) with permission of the author.
 
 






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    Jennifer Michael Hecht

    Hecht teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at The New School in New York City. She has written two volumes of poetry and three books of non-fiction, including Doubt: A History.