Comments on: So I AM a Secular Humanist

By: TheoPoet

TheoPoet — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:16:46 +0000

Thanks for linking to my post. Anyways, nice test evaluation—I also find it funny that for a test about theological worldviews—the questions have little if anything to do about theology or the bible.

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:41:27 +0000

I set out to evaluate the test–a futile gesture on my part as it turned out–so I tried to answer as honestly as I could given the either dishonest or incoherent nature of the questions. Still, as a quite devout Christian who is center-left-libertarian, and thus has many of the capitalism oriented questions on my side, I was surprised at the number.

Even my capitalism is too wishy-washy for them, and I absolutely do not include agreeing with me on capitalist ideas as part of what sort of Christian one is. When I was overseas with my missionary parents, many of our Christian friends were fully socialist and unapologetic about it. We never attempted to convert them!

And no, they didn’t have the question of whether George W. Bush is president of the U. S., and you are correct that it is not replaced by Barack Hussein Obama. Doubtless that was intended to catch leftists who would say, “not my president” and thus, for reasons past my comprehension, would lack a Biblical worldview.

I feel a rant coming on about all this use of “Biblical.”

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:18:58 +0000

A few years ago, I tested as a Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Secular Humanist. Knowing the right-wingnuttery of Brandon Howse (thanks to slacktivist and other bloggers), I tended to answer the badly worded or logically incoherent questions the opposite of what they thought the correct answer should be. The Communist label makes no sense to me, since my politics tend toward a center-left for almost exclusively Christian reasons (though I never claim them as the only Christian possibilities for government), but to someone like Howse, my position is probably indistinguishable from the position of an atheist communist.

I remember that one of the questions when I took the test was “Is George W. Bush president of the United States?” Not a question of interpretation, but a question of fact. Have they gotten rid of that question? I’d be willing to bet pretty much everything I own that they haven’t replaced it with “Is Barack Hussein Obama president of the United States?”

By: Henry Neufeld

Henry Neufeld — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:21:25 +0000

The “not so funny” part is that there must be people who are making donations to the folks and paying to go to their worldview seminars.

But the test was hilarious, as you say.

By: Colin Toffelmire

Colin Toffelmire — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:00:45 +0000

Henry, thanks for that link it was the most fun I’ve had all day! I am also, apparently, a secular humanist. My very favorite part, though, is the breakdown at the end where you are told what the “right” answer to each question was. On top of that, the “right” answer is invariably either strongly agree or strongly disagree, demonstrating yet again that the crazy US Fundies have no time or patience for careful thought or nuance. Also, as you noted above, some of the logically unrelated elements in various questions were simply hilarious!