What is GodIndex?
The original project invited people to rate god on a scale from −5 to +5. The idea made a private reflection public: how did people interpret what was happening to them, and to the world? The resulting index brought those responses into a shared numerical view.
The question did not establish that god exists, that everyone meant the same thing by god, or that a number could resolve a theological argument. It created an unusual space where personal experience, belief and the news could meet. That ambiguity is part of the project’s appeal and part of its methodological challenge.
Read the record, not a simulated live score
Voting has not reopened. The figures in this section belong to the historical project. Start with the GodIndex history and recovered observations, then explore the first performance report and the event-by-event archive.
The original report covers May to August 2008. Later homepage captures and commentary extend the surviving record into 2010. These sources are useful but incomplete: they do not provide an uninterrupted daily series or the original individual votes.
A world rating is not a world opinion poll
An open website can accept responses across borders without obtaining a balanced sample of those countries. A change in the index can reflect a change in mood, a change in who arrived, or both. For that reason, we describe GodIndex as a participant-based experiment with potential for global sentiment research, not a measurement of what every country believes.
Read how to interpret the methodology before using a value in a paper, presentation or news story. Researchers can also review our collaboration brief.
What comes next?
ratethegod is preparing a new chapter. The current site makes the archive available and collects launch newsletter signups. The future voting method, publication rules and research access need to be documented before new results can be compared with old ones.
Join the launch newsletter to hear when voting opens, or help support the project.
Sources & verification
Editorial review: 6 September 2026. Found an error or another archive? Please contact us.