Compare methods

	Religious Doubt Scale	Quest Scale
Field	Religious Studies	Psychology Of Religion
Family	Latent structure	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2002	1976
Originator	Bruce Hunsberger, Michael Pratt & S. Mark Pancer	Daniel C. Batson & W. Larry Ventis
Type	Latent measure of degree of religious doubting	Self-report
Seminal source	Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (2002). A longitudinal study of religious doubts in high school and beyond: Relationships, stability, and searching for answers. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41(2), 255-266.	Batson, C. D., & Ventis, W. L. (1982). The Religious Experience: A Social-Psychological Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780195030761.
Aliases	Religious Doubts Measure, Hunsberger Doubt Scale, Doubting About Religion Scale, Religious Questioning Measure	Quest Scale, Religious Quest
Related	3	4
Summary	The Religious Doubt Scale, associated with Bruce Hunsberger and colleagues, measures the extent to which a person doubts or questions religious beliefs and issues. Rather than asking only whether someone believes, it captures the often-overlooked experience of uncertainty — wondering whether God exists, whether scripture is true, whether evil disproves a loving deity, or whether one's tradition has things right. Respondents rate their level of doubt across a range of religious issues, and the items combine into an overall doubt score. Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer's longitudinal work followed religious doubts from high school into early adulthood, examining how stable doubts are, how they relate to other religious orientations such as quest and fundamentalism, and how a searching, answer-seeking stance figures in religious development.	The Quest Scale, developed by Batson and Ventis (1976), is a 12-item self-report measure of a third religious orientation beyond Allport and Ross's intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. The 'quest' orientation reflects an open, questioning approach to religion: someone who views faith as an ongoing journey of exploration and doubt rather than a settled worldview or instrumental tool. High quest scorers embrace existential uncertainty, seek genuine answers to life's deepest questions, and are comfortable with religious doubt and revision. The scale has become important in understanding mature religious development and predicting prosocial behavior, openness, and psychological flexibility.