Casual Fridays: Your most important mentors

You might get some odd answers from the last question (regarding strength of belief) from some atheists. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to grade my lack of belief is something... maybe it was just a wording issue, but putting "0" made sense even though I'm not at all uncertain; but then putting "10" could make sense too. Not sure how much is matters for your purposes.

I did scratch my head over the last question. I'm an atheist -- how in the world could I rate the strength of a belief that I by definition do not hold? I considered putting a 5 as some average neither/nor answer, but that would have made it look as if I half believed in something. Also considered 10 as a measure of being a 'strong' atheist, but then again it would be an oxymoron to be a believing non-believer. So in the end, I put 0.

There was no category for 'bloggers'! (There was an 'other' category, of course, but still.) I get most of my guidance, moral and otherwise, from reading other bloggers. As mentors go, as a group they're not real warm and personal, and the interaction is mostly one-directional. But one learns to make do.

sorry if i did something stupid like didn't read the directions, but i had a really hard time figuring out when to put "not applicable" versus a low rating. obviously i would put not applicable for spouse since i don't have one, but what about for other family members? i don't consider them to have really influenced me at all, but they do exist...

In my case, I just rated very high my "belief" in atheism... but anyway, it felt weird xD

Also, since my most important mentor in my career and other aspects of my life (a teacher) is also my boss now (see the link for the place I work on, LOL), I had to give both categories consistent ratings, because they apply to the same individual. I guess that in other cases of overlap (teacher-parent, parent-boss, etc) there will be a slight bias for some people.

gs: I'll probably end up coding "not applicable" the same as "not important." I just included that option so that everyone would have a choice that applied to them.

Everyone: I agree that "belief" in atheism is kind of an odd way of putting it.

Mainly this was a question for non-atheists, but I thought it would be interesting to see how atheists responded. Wouldn't a rating of 5 on the belief scale of atheism suggest you're actually an agnostic? 0 and 10 on the scale of belief in atheism are in some ways equivalent, aren't they?

I'm an agnostic, and I rated the strength of my belief as a 10.
I feel very strongly there is not sufficient data available, nor do I have sufficient powers of comprehension, to put forth anything concrete about God. This view is very important to me, so it felt right to rate it a 10.

Also, it seems to me an atheist should answer based on how strongly they believe there isn't a God, but I could see more nuanced answers possible.

I figured answering 9 on the "belief in atheism" scale would help distinguish regular atheists from New Atheists......

*ducks*

I gave myself a "5" for atheism. When asked about my religion, I tell people "atheist," and I'm not changing my mind about it, but I don't consider it an important part of my life or personal belief system. I just... don't believe certain stuff.

I also wasn't sure how to describe my long-term partner (not spouse) -- he's certainly more than my friend, but not a family member, so I called him "Other." I wish the "spouse" category had been called "spouse/partner" to allow for those of us who are not married, or in some cases, cannot get married.