So, first of all, I found this in my e-mail inbox just now. Horrible disgusting stuff, which I honestly can’t understand why I watched, as I was warned what it was beforehand. (Okay, never mind that; I didn’t watch it at all. Primarily because there was a link to another video there, and that video’s name was “Labionasal cyst excision”, and that name, combined with the thumbnail, freaked me out more than, well, just about anything I can remember at the moment.)
On the other hand, the same person also sent me this (in the same mail, actually), an “Are You A Heretic?” test. Which is mildly entertaining for a naturalist, and even more so for a naturalist who’s just spe tmuch of the last five months reading about Byzantine and other medieval history of knowledge, a field where the various heretical denominations play a small but important role.
I imagine it could be of interest to those of you less ontologically extreme than me, too.
My results, by the way:
You scored as a Pelagianism
You are a Pelagian. You reject ideas about man’s fallen human nature and believe that as a result we are able to fully obey God. You are the first Briton to contribute significantly to Christian thought, but you’re still excommunicated in 417.
Nestorianism
33%
Pelagianism
33%
Socinianism
33%
Gnosticism
33%
Albigensianism
33%
Adoptionist
33%
Chalcedon compliant
17%
Monarchianism
17%
Monophysitism
17%
Donatism
0%
Modalism
0%
Apollanarian
0%
Arianism
0%
Docetism
0%
Now I gotta go read up on Pelagianism, too. Crap. Sort of.

Posts
Judging by what Wikipedia had to tell about the doctrine of Pelagius, I would have to say that the test is good, because that kinda sounded like a religious version of my own view on free will and all that stuff.
2. June 2008 @ 21:48 ( Permalink )
An odd test to take for an agnostic, this, as I kind of felt all the questions implied my believing in God in the first place. So, I answered the test with the underlying assumption “if God exists and Jesus was indeed produced by him for reasons and in ways somewhat similar to traditional Christian schools of thought”.
You scored as a Monophysitism
You are a monophysite. You do not hold to the idea of a hypostatic union of the divine and human in the person of Christ and instead hold that Christ had only one nature, which is a fusion of the divine and human. Condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 681.
Monophysitism
83%
Pelagianism
83%
Chalcedon compliant
67%
Monarchianism
67%
Adoptionist
58%
Nestorianism
58%
Socinianism
50%
Gnosticism
42%
Apollanarian
33%
Modalism
25%
Docetism
25%
Arianism
25%
Albigensianism
8%
Donatism
0%
—
Seems about right. I do not see the point in Jesus as both God and Man if He’s both independently of the other. Seems to me what’s attractive about the idea of Jesus’ nature has to be the thought of an individual torn between mortal weakness and divine ideal in a way nobody else ever has or will be. If that’s the teachings of Monophysitism, then I guess that fits the bill. But this is murky stuff, so, I guess they could hold the exact opposite for all I know.
2. June 2008 @ 22:29 ( Permalink )
I have no idea what to make of this, but here goes nothing:
————————————
You scored as a Monarchianism
You are a Monarchian. You seek to retain monotheistic belief but in doing so abandon the idea of a triune God. God exists as the Father only, though he can reveal himself in other ways in a manner similar to modalism. Jesus is a man who is adopted into the Godhead and given divine status. Jehovah’s Witnesses still hold to this belief.
Gnosticism
67%
Monarchianism
67%
Pelagianism
58%
Nestorianism
58%
Monophysitism
58%
Socinianism
50%
Chalcedon compliant
50%
Arianism
33%
Adoptionist
17%
Albigensianism
0%
Donatism
0%
Modalism
0%
Apollanarian
0%
Docetism
0%
————————————————————
Of course, I do not _actually_ believe in God, and would rather believe that Jesus was simply a man and nothing more. A good man, but not divine.
Am I a Jehova’s Witness? Well, I do like knocking on people’s doors…
2. June 2008 @ 22:59 ( Permalink )
Just came across this while browsing your blog. Interesting test as it gives a view into the various ways of interpret God in the Middle Ages. I’m not at all surprised you ended up as a Pelagian, I had half expected the same result myself being quite fascinated by Pelagius and his teachings, but at least it’s good to have Pelagianism on a good second place.
You Scored as Chalcedon compliant
You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you’re not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451.
Chalcedon compliant
100%
Pelagianism
92%
Nestorianism
75%
Monophysitism
58%
Modalism
33%
Arianism
33%
Apollanarian
33%
Adoptionist
25%
Monarchianism
25%
Albigensianism
8%
Donatism
0%
Socinianism
0%
Docetism
0%
Gnosticism
0%
29. November 2008 @ 00:56 ( Permalink )