Hey guys,

It's been a long time. I was away in order to understand things better and I feel much healthier now (mentally). I bought this book, The God Delusion, last week out of the intention of gaining more knowledge and strengthening the current one but after reading about a 100 pages, some things confused me and I'd like to ask them here.

1) Ask on atheist republic about scale of probabilities and Dawkin's statement that god is undisprovable
Is it not ridiculous to remain in a position of assumption/chance that Jesus/Allah or any god (deist included) may or may not exist and that you are doomed if he did (suppose he's sadistic)?

2) Ask what exactly does Dawkins mean when he says that you cannot know for certain neither that god exists or does not exist.
What exactly does "knowing certain" refer to here? Is having evidence of evolution and natural selection not certain enough?
What about the atrocious mistakes in all the holy books of today and the non-existence of miracles, is this not knowledge enough to know for certain that god doesn't exist?
Or does "certainty" imply to something like a direct evidence? Like since god is considered omnipresent in monotheistic religions, we can't know that he does not exist unless we ourselves are omnipresent?

3) Where would you place yourself on Dawkins' Scale of Probabilities? If you are placing yourself on 6, then could you explain what witholds you from going on step further and being on 7? The scale is below:

*****Dawkins' Scale of Theistic Probabilities*****

1.Strong theist. 100% probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: "I do not believe, I know."

2.De facto theist. Very high probability but short of 100%. "I don't know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there."

3.Leaning towards theism. Higher than 50% but not very high. "I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God."

4.Completely impartial. Exactly 50%. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable."

5.Leaning towards atheism. Lower than 50% but not very low. "I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical."

6.De facto atheist. Very low probability, but short of zero. "I don't 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."

4) What evidence do you think scientists require which would compel them to admit that a god exists? Let's assume that the god in this case is a deistic god who created the universe and then retired off to let the world go on as it wants.
What would prove or disprove such a god?

5) Richard Dawkins also writes that it's okay to be agnostic about things which science has not comprehended yet in terms of evidence. Things like extraterrestrial intelligence, life on other planets, aliens and fairies.
Do you think this is a sensible position to be in i.e. agnosticism about such things rather than denying them straight away on the basis of logic? I mean seriously, aliens and fairies?

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So, I pretty much feel quite lost right now because of the word "probabilities" and that that's how one of the world's greatest thinkers alive considers the appropriate position for atheists. This has caused me a lot of uncertainty too about what to believe anymore!