I guess you've probably seen or heard of the Dawkins spectrum on this subject, as follows (copied from Wikipedia):
1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung, 'I do not believe, I know.'
2. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. 'I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.'
3. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. 'I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.'
4. Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. 'God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.'
5. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. 'I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be sceptical.'
6. Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. 'I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.'
7. Strong atheist. 'I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung "knows" there is one.'
What do you think of these definitions.
Personally, I find this spectrum unsatisfactory for 2 reasons.
Firstly, the fact that
"strong theist" is rated at
"1" and
"strong atheist" is listed at
"7" seems to imply that you have to work from being a strong theist towards being a strong atheist. I don't agree with that and I'm sure Dawkins wouldn't have intended that! I don't know if everyone sees it that way around.
Secondly, I don't think you can have a gradual scale from atheist, to agnostic, to theist. Those positions simply do not share the same spectrum. For one thing, as I mentioned before, there will be some people who have no knowledge or interest in the particular entity in question. Where do they fit on the scale? And I think it is fair to say that atheists reach their conclusion via a different mechanism to theists. Atheists base their position on empirical evidence and logic; theists base their position on something else...it's not really for me to say what!