Found this quiz at the beginning of the wonderfully written Doubt: A History.
The idea is that by answering these 13 questions, you can find out where on the scale of belief vs unbelief you fall:
- Do you believe that a particular religious tradition holds accurate knowledge of the ultimate nature of reality and the purpose of human life?
- Do you believe that some thinking being consciously made the universe?
- Is there an identifiable force coursing through the universe, holding it together, or uniting all life-forms?
- Could prayer be in any way effective, that is, do you believe that such a being or force (as posited above) could ever be responsive to your thoughts or words?
- Do you believe this being or force can think or speak?
- Do you believe this being has a memory or can make plans?
- Does this force sometimes take a human form?
- Do you believe that the thinking part or animating force of a human being continues to exist after the body has died?
- Do you believe that any part of a human being survives death, elsewhere or here on earth?
- Do you believe that feelings about things should be admitted as evidence in establishing reality?
- Do you believe that love and inner feelings of morality suggest that there is a world beyond that of biology, social patterns, and accident--i.e., a realm of higher meaning?
- Do you believe that the world is not completely knowable by science?
- If someone were to say, "The universe is nothing but an accidental pile of stuff, jostling around with no rhyme or reason, and all life on earth is but a tiny, utterly inconsequential speck of nothing, in a corner of space, existing in the blink of an eye never to be judged, noticed, or remembered," would you say, "Now that's going a bit far, that's a bit wrong-headed"?
So here's how the quiz is scored:
- If you said No to all 13, you're a hard-core atheist and rationalist materialist.
- If you said No to the first 7, then yes to the rest: you're an atheist with a pious relationship with universe
- If you said Not Sure to any two of the first seven, you're an agnostic
- And if you said Yes to nine or more, congratulations, you're a believer
I came out with a perfect 13 "No" answers, confirming my suspicions that I'm a cold and rational atheist. :)
How do you rate on the quiz? Do the results surprise you, or confirm what you already knew about your beliefs?
