[Buddha-l] Speaking of tests...

[Alex Wilding]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:
> Have any of you taken the test called "What's your spiritual type?" on
> www.beliefnet.com? It doesn't take much time, and it's sort of fun. I
> got a score of 40 out of 100 (which, by the way, is considered a
> perfect score).
>
I took the test the other day about - what was it now? - oh yes, male and
female brain. Came out slightly above average on both tests, and therefore
quite androgynously brained. So what did I learn from that? Basically zilch,
except for noting that my spiritual narcissism is strong enough to let me
waste 10 minutes on getting a few lines of computer codes say something
about *MEEE*.
The same motive led me to this test, the result of which was "straddler", in
other words no real comment, as informative as the first test. But I did
learn something else, or at least I got a reminder. Time and again I was
dissatisfied by *all* the four options because the very perspective from
which the questions appear to have been written is something I would want to
challenge. Many of the questions suggest an equation of "spirituality" with
a belief in or relationship with "god" (hellooo .... there are buddhists
here ...). Some questions seem to take a dichotomy of the supernatural and
the natural (the latter, it would appear, being "blind") for granted, and
appeared only to offer choices between a belief in the supernatural and a
conventional, mechanistic materialism. My own little attitudes were just not
being mapped onto the answers, and surely I'm not *that* unusual?
I also note that I am still naive enough to have even entertained the idea
that a multiple choice quizette on spirituality would rise above the level
of the daily newspaper horoscope.
AW