LDS Theology Quiz

[smac97]

https://lds-theology-quiz.vercel.app/

Quote

Which LDS Theologian Are You?

Using AI to process your natural language responses, this interactive quiz maps your core theological positions across many dimensions and reveals your closest alignment among major LDS thinkers.

Interesting exercise.  It allows the respondent to type as much as you like, rather than select from A, B, C or D.  More nuance and clarity is possible.

I was interested in how my doctrinal/theological outlook contrasts with others.  I was found to be aligned with BH Roberts (72%), Blake Ostler (72%), Joseph Smith (72%), Terryl Givens (67%) and "Progressive Mormon" (53%).

Nearly 8,000 respondents so far.  Here's how I compare to the other respondents:

• Divine Foreknowledge / Open Theism: You 90 · Avg 58
• God's Nature Relative to Humanity: You 75 · Avg 25
• Infinite Regress of Gods: You 40 · Avg 52
• Nature of Eternal Intelligences: You 55 · Avg 56
• Mechanism of Spirit Birth: You 50 · Avg 46
• Nature of Human Free Will: You 100 · Avg 61
• Atonement Model: You 5 · Avg 39
• Scholars vs. Living Oracles: You 55 · Avg 39
• Nature of Canonized Scripture: You 32 · Avg 35
• Centrality of Heavenly Mother: You 30 · Avg 60
• Nature of Exaltation: You 95 · Avg 59
• Godhead model: You 40 · Avg 41
• Evolution Compatibility: You 100 · Avg 73
• Orthopraxy vs. Orthodoxy: You 50 · Avg 66
• Brigham Young's Theological Legacy: You 45 · Avg 40
• Gay Sealings: You 0 · Avg 18
• Female Ordination: You 0 · Avg 43
• Progression Between Kingdoms: You 50 · Avg 53
• Priesthood/Temple Ban Origin: You 100 · Avg 62

I'm not sure how accurate this is, as my "scores" on several of these don't seem to reflect well what I wrote.

Also, I was surprised that I swing pretty wildly between being close to the "average" response and departing substantially from it:

Close to Average:

• Infinite Regress of Gods: You 40 · Avg 52
• Nature of Eternal Intelligences: You 55 · Avg 56
• Mechanism of Spirit Birth: You 50 · Avg 46
• Scholars vs. Living Oracles: You 55 · Avg 39
• Nature of Canonized Scripture: You 32 · Avg 35
• Godhead model: You 40 · Avg 41
• Brigham Young's Theological Legacy: You 45 · Avg 40
• Progression Between Kingdoms: You 50 · Avg 53

Far from Average: 

• Divine Foreknowledge / Open Theism: You 90 · Avg 58
• God's Nature Relative to Humanity: You 75 · Avg 25
• Nature of Human Free Will: You 100 · Avg 61
• Atonement Model: You 5 · Avg 39
• Centrality of Heavenly Mother: You 30 · Avg 60
• Nature of Exaltation: You 95 · Avg 59
• Evolution Compatibility: You 100 · Avg 73
• Female Ordination: You 0 · Avg 43
• Priesthood/Temple Ban Origin: You 100 · Avg 62

Also, I find it interesting that substantially more respondents are open to female ordination (43) than to same-sex marriage (18).

Anyway, thoughts?

Thanks,

-Smac

[longview]

I align with Bruce McConkie at 79% and least with Progressive Mormons at 49%.

[3DOP]

1 hour ago, smac97 said:

https://lds-theology-quiz.vercel.app/

Interesting exercise.  It allows the respondent to type as much as you like, rather than select from A, B, C or D.  More nuance and clarity is possible.

I was interested in how my doctrinal/theological outlook contrasts with others.  I was found to be aligned with BH Roberts (72%), Blake Ostler (72%), Joseph Smith (72%), Terryl Givens (67%) and "Progressive Mormon" (53%).

Nearly 8,000 respondents so far.  Here's how I compare to the other respondents:

• Divine Foreknowledge / Open Theism: You 90 · Avg 58
• God's Nature Relative to Humanity: You 75 · Avg 25
• Infinite Regress of Gods: You 40 · Avg 52
• Nature of Eternal Intelligences: You 55 · Avg 56
• Mechanism of Spirit Birth: You 50 · Avg 46
• Nature of Human Free Will: You 100 · Avg 61
• Atonement Model: You 5 · Avg 39
• Scholars vs. Living Oracles: You 55 · Avg 39
• Nature of Canonized Scripture: You 32 · Avg 35
• Centrality of Heavenly Mother: You 30 · Avg 60
• Nature of Exaltation: You 95 · Avg 59
• Godhead model: You 40 · Avg 41
• Evolution Compatibility: You 100 · Avg 73
• Orthopraxy vs. Orthodoxy: You 50 · Avg 66
• Brigham Young's Theological Legacy: You 45 · Avg 40
• Gay Sealings: You 0 · Avg 18
• Female Ordination: You 0 · Avg 43
• Progression Between Kingdoms: You 50 · Avg 53
• Priesthood/Temple Ban Origin: You 100 · Avg 62

I'm not sure how accurate this is, as my "scores" on several of these don't seem to reflect well what I wrote.

Also, I was surprised that I swing pretty wildly between being close to the "average" response and departing substantially from it:

Close to Average:

• Infinite Regress of Gods: You 40 · Avg 52
• Nature of Eternal Intelligences: You 55 · Avg 56
• Mechanism of Spirit Birth: You 50 · Avg 46
• Scholars vs. Living Oracles: You 55 · Avg 39
• Nature of Canonized Scripture: You 32 · Avg 35
• Godhead model: You 40 · Avg 41
• Brigham Young's Theological Legacy: You 45 · Avg 40
• Progression Between Kingdoms: You 50 · Avg 53

Far from Average: 

• Divine Foreknowledge / Open Theism: You 90 · Avg 58
• God's Nature Relative to Humanity: You 75 · Avg 25
• Nature of Human Free Will: You 100 · Avg 61
• Atonement Model: You 5 · Avg 39
• Centrality of Heavenly Mother: You 30 · Avg 60
• Nature of Exaltation: You 95 · Avg 59
• Evolution Compatibility: You 100 · Avg 73
• Female Ordination: You 0 · Avg 43
• Priesthood/Temple Ban Origin: You 100 · Avg 62

Also, I find it interesting that substantially more respondents are open to female ordination (43) than to same-sex marriage (18).

Anyway, thoughts?

Thanks,

-Smac

Thoughts? Yeah. I wonder if I could be a Temple ready LDS doctrinally. I love these exercises anyway. I will answer as a Catholic. Anyway, here goes.

[3DOP]

30 minutes ago, 3DOP said:

Thoughts? Yeah. I wonder if I could be a Temple ready LDS doctrinally. I love these exercises anyway. I will answer as a Catholic. Anyway, here goes.

Heh

 It froze on the 10th question. I might start over another time and sign in to save my answers. It's fun though. 

[webbles]

I apparently am close to all positions.  Ostler and Givens are both 85%, Roberts is 82%, Joseph Smith is 76%, Progressive Mormons is 70%, and McConkie is 62%.

I have a few that have a 100% score and I'm pretty certain that I used the given choices for those questions.  I bet if I had written something, even if it was close to the given choice, it would probably have been a lower percentage.

The women's priesthood one is interesting because it puts "Temple priesthood" at 50%.  So if you answer that women have the priesthood through the temple, then you start at 50% and move up or down from there.

[Calm]

1 hour ago, 3DOP said:

Heh

 It froze on the 10th question. I might start over another time and sign in to save my answers. It's fun though. 

I spent ah hour? on it, got to the last question and accidentally tapped outside the box and lost the page.  Will do it later.

[Navidad]

My results were closest to Terryl Givens with a 68% likeness. I had individual scores as high as 90% and as low as 20%. I mostly wrote out my answers, explaining from my somewhat progressive Evangelical perspective. I was second closest to a Progressive Mormon perspective. So there is hope for me yet! 

[3DOP]

51 minutes ago, Calm said:

I spent ah hour? on it, got to the last question and accidentally tapped outside the box and lost the page.  Will do it later.

So sorry...but we can laugh...after a few hours.

[manol]

3 hours ago, Navidad said:

My results were closest to Terryl Givens with a 68% likeness. I had individual scores as high as 90% and as low as 20%. I mostly wrote out my answers, explaining from my somewhat progressive Evangelical perspective. I was second closest to a Progressive Mormon perspective. So there is hope for me yet! 

I scored 69% Terryl Givens and 66% Progressive Mormon.  Don't know who Terryl Givens is, but maybe I should find out. 

Edited a couple of hours later to add:  I scored 100% "orthodoxy" and 0% "orthopraxy", the two being put at opposite ends of a continuum in the AI's analysis.  I don't see myself as "orthodox", and imo pitting them against one another is a false dichotomy.   Also, there is this lesser-known thing called "orthopathy", which would be "correct affections".

"Orthopathy" seems to be an area where Givens and I have some common ground, so credit to the AI for placing me in the "Terryl Givens" category, even if its analysis did not explicitly include "orthopathy". 

Edited Thursday at 10:51 PM by manol

[Rain]

That drove me a bit nuts. Some of the questions were clearly about my own beliefs. Some were asked as how I understood LDS doctrine. Those won't necessarily be the same thing, even if I still believed in the church.

Then we have some questions like, "How do you understand LDS canonized scripture (the Bible, Book of Mormon, D&C, Pearl of Great Price)?"

How do I understand it? Like languagewise? Or through the Spirit? Or maybe what do I understand it to be? Or what do I believe it to be? 

Then there was an answer I accidentally taped and it wouldn't go back or let me answer correctly.

75% Givens

74% progressive

Edited yesterday at 12:14 AM by Rain

[Navidad]

2 hours ago, manol said:

I scored 69% Terryl Givens and 66% Progressive Mormon.  Don't know who Terryl Givens is, but maybe I should find out. 

I think I have all of Terryl Givens' books. I like his stuff! 

[Calm]

2 hours ago, manol said:

scored 69% Terryl Givens and 66% Progressive Mormon.  Don't know who Terryl Givens is, but maybe I should find out. 

I think you would like him.  He is a good writer imo.

[Calm]

2 hours ago, manol said:

I scored 69% Terryl Givens and 66% Progressive Mormon.  Don't know who Terryl Givens is, but maybe I should find out. 

Edited a couple of hours later to add:  I scored 100% "orthodoxy" and 0% "orthopraxy", the two being put at opposite ends of a continuum in the AI's analysis.  I don't see myself as "orthodox", and imo pitting them against one another is a false dichotomy.   Also, there is this lesser-known thing called "orthopathy", which would be "correct affections".

"Orthopathy" seems to be an area where Givens and I have some common ground, so credit to the AI for placing me in the "Terryl Givens" category, even if its analysis did not explicitly include "orthopathy". 

I am surprised you scored 100% orthodoxy unless you did more understanding of LDS belief rather than to see what type were your own.

that is a weird dichotomy.  Why wouldn’t someone who was very orthodox also be very orthopraxy.  The one question I remember was which was more important, but that doesn’t mean the other isn’t important as well.

Edited Thursday at 11:30 PM by Calm

[MrShorty]

I came out 77% Givens, and 70% ProgMo, and only 47% McConkie.

[JLHPROF]

BH Roberts 75% and Joseph Smith's Nauvoo theology 68%. 

Progressive 43% (and that seems high).

No surprise there.

That was fun. 🙂

Edited yesterday at 12:23 AM by JLHPROF

[Calm]

8 hours ago, smac97 said:

Interesting exercise.

Nice find….

[manol]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

I am surprised you scored 100% orthodoxy unless you did more understanding of LDS belief rather than to see what type were your own.

No, I was my unrestrainedly-weird self.   Edited to add:  And actually it was kind of nice to not feel obligated to post "in my opinion" disclaimers at regular intervals, even if my audience was an AI algorithm. 

There was a question about which is more important for exaltation, beliefs or actions.  My reply was something like, "Our souls are not at stake, but our trajectory and therefore our timeline is.  We are actually Love Incarnate and are here to wake up to that and to live from that perspective."

Now I have been "out of the loop", so to speak, for a while now.  If ^^^THAT^^^ ticks the current "orthodoxy" checkbox, then I need to reconsider my assessment of Mormonism!

Edited yesterday at 01:43 AM by manol

[SeekingUnderstanding]

43 minutes ago, manol said:

No, I was my unrestrainedly-weird self.

There was a question about which is more important for exaltation, beliefs or actions.  My reply was something like, "Our souls are not at stake, but our trajectory and therefore our timeline is.  We are actually Love Incarnate and are here to wake up to that and to live from that perspective."

Now I have been "out of the loop", so to speak, for a while now.  If ^^^THAT^^^ ticks the current "orthodoxy" checkbox, then I need to reconsider my assessment of Mormonism!

Stretching the limits of the ai tool I think. 

[longview]

8 hours ago, 3DOP said:

Heh

 It froze on the 10th question. I might start over another time and sign in to save my answers. It's fun though. 

Maybe the AI that is administering the survey became completely befuddled when you threw in references to the Hellenistic Fantasy.

[3DOP]

14 hours ago, longview said:

Maybe the AI that is administering the survey became completely befuddled when you threw in references to the Hellenistic Fantasy.

Heheh. Could be. Anyway...here are my results:

Joseph (King Follett) 67%

Joseph (Nauvoo) 67%

Roberts 63%

McConkey 63%

Ostler 61%

Givens 61%

Progressive 52%

Why look at that. I see little evidence that the "Hellenistic Fantasy" stops me from being LDS!

HEH. Good one, longview. I would have given you one of those laughing things...but...have a great day longview. Thanks for the laugh!

And congratulations for your McConkey score. Mine was disappointing.

Regards, 

Rory

Edited 23 hours ago by 3DOP

[let’s roll]

18 hours ago, Calm said:

I think you would like him.  He is a good writer imo.

The God Who Weeps is one of my favorites.

My results:

Terryl Givens  75%

McConkie.      58%

Progressive.    66%

All of my responses were narratives, most of them nuanced.  It was interesting to see how AI converted those narratives to a point on the spectrum of responses.

I feel like creating a badge with my “theological radar” printed on it.  I found the radar fascinating.

Edited 21 hours ago by let’s roll

[Nofear]

Givens and Ostler 83% and 80%. But, I also happen to differ from both in non-trivial ways. I'm not sure the AI always captured some of the subtleties of the responses. Still, cute little quiz.