Research exploring nonbelievers’ reasons for not believing in the existence of god(s) has focused on theory development. Such efforts are valuable, but may not capture the lived experiences of nonbelievers. The current two studies quantitatively examined nonbelievers’ self-reported reasons for nonbelief through developing the Reasons of Atheists and Agnostics for Nonbelief in God’s Existence Scale (RANGES). We developed an initial pool of 64 items using prior published research, revised by a panel of experts including researchers and thought leaders in nonbelief communities. Both studies included participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (Study 1 & 2 Ns = 520 & 369), all of whom reported not believing in god(s). In Study 1, our exploratory factor analysis suggested nine factors across 35 items. In Study 2, we confirmed the nine-factor structure using 38 items (35 from Study 1 plus three new items for better coverage of factors with few items) with adequate fit. Across both studies, the RANGES subscales showed good reliability, convergent validity (e.g., positive correlations with previous lists of reasons for religious doubt), predictive validity (e.g., positive and negative feelings toward God and religion), and discriminant validity (e.g., subscales were not unexpectedly associated with other measures). Our 1-year follow-up with a subset of Study 2 participants (N = 132) found different levels of stability among the RANGES subscales. This measure can promote further understanding the motivations, identities, and experiences of nonbelievers across cultures.

中文翻译：

---

无神论者和不可知论者不相信上帝存在量表的原因：发展和初步验证。

探索非信徒不相信神存在的原因的研究集中在理论发展上。这种努力很有价值，但可能无法捕捉到非信徒的生活经历。目前的两项研究通过开发无神论者的原因和不相信上帝存在量表 (RANGES) 的不可知论者，定量检查了非信徒自我报告的不信仰原因。我们使用先前发表的研究开发了一个包含 64 个项目的初始库，并由包括非信仰社区的研究人员和思想领袖在内的专家小组修订。这两项研究都包括来自亚马逊的机械土耳其人（研究 1 和 2 Ns = 520 和 369），他们都报告不相信上帝。在研究 1 中，我们的探索性因素分析提出了 35 个项目中的 9 个因素。在研究 2 中，我们使用 38 个项目（研究 1 中的 35 个加上三个新项目以更好地覆盖具有较少项目的因素）充分拟合了九因素结构。在这两项研究中，RANGES 分量表显示出良好的信度、收敛效度（例如，与之前的宗教怀疑原因列表呈正相关）、预测效度（例如，对上帝和宗教的正面和负面情绪）和区分效度（例如，子量表）没有意外地与其他措施相关）。我们对研究 2 参与者的子集（N = 132）进行的 1 年随访发现，RANGES 分量表之间存在不同程度的稳定性。这项措施可以促进进一步了解跨文化非信徒的动机、身份和经历。