Belief-O-Matic is an interesting new quiz at Beliefnet.com that can show you what religious groups your beliefs most closely correspond to. Answer 20 multiple-choice questions and then see your scores. My results put me at 100% LDS, with lower scores for other faiths (e.g., 94% conservative Protestant, 80% Orthodox Jewish, and 24% Neo-Pagan – frankly, I only feel about 12% pagan, but what can you expect with automated testing?).
Give it a try and find out just how LDS you are.
A hat tip to D. Charles Pyle for calling my attention to this service.
That’s been there for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been a member of Beliefnet since June of 2003. Oh well, it’s still a fun quiz.
I turned out 100% LDS, with Jehovah’s Witnesses coming in 2nd with 91% and Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants coming in 3rd at 73%.
It says I’m a Jew!
If it says you’re Jewish, I’d hurry and get some DNA testing done because I’m willing to bet that you’ve got Jewish blood in you.
Of course, my statement is based on the scientific prediction that nearly everyone on this planet is going to have some Jewish ancestry. While Y-chromosome or mt-DNA testing may not find any trace of a Jewish connection, it is still probably there, as we can infer from the work of D.L.T. Rohde, S. Olson, and J.T. Chang, “Modelling the Recent Common Ancestry of All Living Humans,” Nature, Vol. 431, No. 7008, Sept. 30, 2004, p. 562.
Here is the beginning of the paper:
“If a common ancestor of all living humans is defined as an individual who is a genealogical ancestor of all present-day people, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for a randomly mating population would have lived in the very recent past. However, the random mating model ignores essential aspects of population substructure, such as the tendency of individuals to choose mates from the same social group, and the relative isolation of geographically separated groups. Here we show that recent common ancestors also emerge from two models incorporating substantial population substructure. One model, designed for simplicity and theoretical insight, yields explicit mathematical results through a probabilistic analysis. A more elaborate second model, designed to capture historical population dynamics in a more realistic way, is analysed computationally through Monte Carlo simulations. These analyses suggest that the genealogies of all living humans overlap in remarkable ways in the recent past. In particular, the MRCA of all present-day humans lived just a few thousand years ago in these models. Moreover, among all individuals living more than just a few thousand years earlier than the MRCA, each present-day human has exactly the same set of genealogical ancestors.”
If you’re a Lamanite, the DNA testing has been done. And you’re not Hebrew. As for Lehi et al, the thin reed of your historicity keeps shrinking…
Ugh. The quiz says I’m 43% Scientologist. I find that kind of offensive.
There are tribes in the Amazon and the Australian outback who haven’t had meaningful contact with outsiders in hundreds of years–and in some cases have never had meaningful contact with outsiders. How are they supposed to have the same set of ancestors as a guy in Japan?
Also, the fact that there are different genetic pools in different populations suggests that the extent of sharing is less than the Nature paper would suggest. This is an instance of a seemingly reasonable model leading to clearly false predictions–suggesting a need to rethink the model.
I thought a few of the agree/disagree questions were difficult to answer in that way. Oh, well. I scored 100% in mainline/liberal Protestantism, 97% LDS and 92% main/conservative, followed by Quaker, Bahai and JWs. What a mix!
1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (100%)
2. Jehovah’s Witness (100%)- eeeek
3. Orthodox Judaism (87%)
4. Bahá’í Faith (82%) – What the?
5. Islam (74%) ahhhhh I think not.
6. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (73%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (69%)
8. Sikhism (62%) – give me strength
9. Jainism (59%) – What is a made up religion?
10. Orthodox Quaker (59%)
11. Eastern Orthodox (58%)
12. Roman Catholic (58%)
13. Seventh Day Adventist (57%)
14. Reform Judaism (54%)
15. Liberal Quakers (52%)- Do these people still exist?
16. Hinduism (50%)- As if!!!
17. Unitarian Universalism (41%)
18. Mahayana Buddhism (40%)- Not in 1000 years.
19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (39%)
20. Theravada Buddhism (39%)
21. Neo-Pagan (31%)- You watch one episode of Charmed and your labelled a witch.
22. New Age (28%)- I think not.
23. Secular Humanism (23%)
24. New Thought (21%)
25. Nontheist (21%) – Is this Athiesm gone wrong.
26. Taoism (17%)- I don’t do Chinese food – gives me indigestion.
27. Scientology (16%)- Get behind me Satan…aka Tom Cruise.
They must have changed it… Now it (https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/quizzes/beliefomatic.aspx)
told me "Your beliefs match closest with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!"