If the BA can blog about religion, I guess we can comment on it here. I took that quiz four different times to see how it is scored. It takes only four out of 13 "no" or "not sure" answers to disqualify you from a believer to an agnostic. I bet some believers would find that pretty insulting. You have to answer all 13 "no" to qualify as a hard-core atheist.

BA Blog article in question: A flawed quiz about belief? I have no doubt.

I'm not convinced by that reasoning.

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Yep, this thread probably won't fly far before it's wings are clipped...

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It's innocuous so far, but rest assured I'm keeping a close eye on it.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Well, so far nobody has commented on anything but the appropriateness of the topic. I expect it will be all right, because both the (infrequent) religious posters and the hard-core atheists here are nearly always polite. The trouble (from both sides) usually comes when conspiracy theorists and ID advocates get involved.

C'mon, somebody take the quiz!

I changed "rabid atheists" to "hard-core atheists". Just a common expression, but I don't want to start anything!

I was a bit unsure about this question.

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what purpose does a quiz have anyway?

you already know where you are in regards to your beliefs, the only purpose in the questions in the quiz would be to start a debate.

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I definitely agree with whoever posted on the blog that it's skewed toward "the big three." I scored as an agnostic, which I'm really, really not.

I also didn't see how anyone could think nothing of the body remains on Earth after death. Even if your ashes are cremated and shot into space (I'm looking at you, Gene and Timothy), for one, they don't send all the ashes, just some--and even if they sent them all, things escape as gas during cremation itself, and that doesn't go into space. However, I feel quite certain that's not the question they were intending to ask.

Oh, and I answered "not sure" to easily half the questions, because I don't know and I'm not going to say I do. My feelings even about my own spirituality are subject to change, even if the core philosophies remain the same.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Well, you know, if you're not part of one of the "big three", then as far as they're concerned, you're on the outside looking in.

It's a lot like buying a VW back in the 1950s. The big three would point and laugh at your yard stick used to see how much gas was left in the tank, and your flip-out turn signal indicators, and your split rear window, and your trunk in the front.

But, when you drove that VW past all those humongous GMs, Fords, and Chryslers stuck in the snow and ice, well, who was laughing then?

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I came up as an agnostic, which is correct, but I don't think much of the test.
Is there an identifiable force coursing through the universe, holding it together, or uniting all life-forms? - Sure, gravity, etc., but I'm sure that is not what they meant.

Do you believe that any part of a human being survives death, elsewhere or here on earth? - Sure, atoms, probably entire molecules survive and are recycled in the ecosystem, but again, I don't think that's what they meant.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

it sounds a little like Jedi philosophy. the force!

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I got "You may still be an atheist or agnostic, though not of the materialist variety.", switching gravity off as a force holding everything together got me "You are still an atheist, but you may have what I will call a pious relationship to the universe.", switching off my intestival bacteria which survive my death got me the same, switching off both got me to "You are a hard-core atheist and of a certain variety: a rational materialist."

Yay me! Stupid test.

I prefer this one: http://www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION/ I think it was mentioned on the old board ages ago.
In that one, the 10 best fits for me was:
1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3. Non-theist (86%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (81%)
5. Liberal Quakers (80%)
6. Neo-Pagan (76%)
7. Mainline - Liberal Christian Protestants (67%)
8. Taoism (60%)
9. New Age (55%)
10. Mahayana Buddhism (54%)

If I remember right, Unitarianism has been described as the belief that there is at most one god.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

if she wanted to have a test that showed whether people were atheists then she should have had the question "do you belive in God?", that would do it.

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But if she wanted to seperate between believers, atheists and agnostics, it still takes two questions or one with three possibilities:
Do you believe there is a god? Y/N
Do you believe there is no god Y/N
or
Do you believe there is a god? Yes/No/Don't Know

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Lots of possibilities.
Do you believe there is a god?
Do you believe there are gods?
Do you believe there could be gods, but there aren't any in fact?
Do you believe there used to be gods, but that they no longer exist?
Do you believe that God exists, but he had nothing to do with the
creation of the Universe?
Do you believe that God exists, but he's currently off duty?
Do you believe that God exists, but his powers have been greatly
exaggerated?
Do you believe that you are God?
Do you believe that you could do God's job better than he's been
doing recently if you were just given the chance?
Do you believe that God exists, but his wife has got after him to
quit fooling around with the Universe and attend to more important
matters?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

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http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"The other planets?
Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
-- Kai Yeves

That's what my grandfather, the Methodist minister, used to say. (He had a thing about Unitarians.)

Edit: Oh, yeah--the quiz got my religion right (100% neo-Pagan); I resent its implication that "secular humanism" is a religion. It can't be. It's got the word "secular" in it!

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

There are several other philosophies of life that can't really be called religions on the list, so I'm not worried.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

That's probably because you haven't spent as much time as I studying banned books in America, and therefore haven't encountered the phrase "the religion of secular humanism" half so often. Consider yourself lucky.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I will if you'll tell me where the phrase occurs, is it in the books themselves, or as something the books promote which is why it should be banned?

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Something the books "promote" (the authors often aren't even sure what secular humanism is) that causes certain people to attempt to have them banned.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"