An annoying quiz

From the same website that brought me the quiz in the post below this one, I found a quiz entitled "How emerging/postmodern are you?" These quizzes can be written by anyone, and the guy/gal that wrote this one has serious issues.

Those of you that keep up with my ramblings on postmodernity and emerging thought know that I think one of the biggest problems in the debate is the failure of people to distinguish between what could be called "academic postmodernity" (ie, the worldview held by the ivory tower-bound professor types) and the "street version" of postmodernity (what I usually call cultural postmodernity). This quiz is horribly guilty...



There are precisely eighteen questions on this particular quiz. I'll list them below (in red) and comment thereafter:

[Apparently the order of the questions is randomized each time you visit the site, so don't expect to find them in the order I've listed.]


1. There is a definate [sic] line of right and wrong. Not a bad question, frankly.

2. 2+2 is 4, but it may be something else too, we just don't know it yet. This is precisely the kind of "academic" nonsense I'm talking about. Is it possible that "2+2=4" has implications that we don't already understand? Sure. Is it possible that "2+2=4" for additional reasons beyond what we already understand? Sure. But this kind of question just points to the extreme/ivory tower postmodernity.

3. We can't know anything for sure about God, because that would put God in a box. If the question read "everything" instead of "anything", it would better reflect cultural postmodernity.

4. There are theological reasons why Christians don't go to the same churches, and this is good. What's good? That there are theological differences among Christ's followers? That we often separate over minor points of theology? That we often separate over major points of theology? That we separate in some ways but not others? What are we getting at here?!

5. The overall moral teaching of the Bible is more important than whether or not it is literal history. Please define "moral teaching", first. Then, explain how it is that we could possibly separate these two discussions when it comes to the Bible. Jesus, after all, predicated much of his "moral" teaching on "literal" history!

6. Every religion leads to the same end. That's not postmodernity so much as universalism. There are universalists in the Modern world as well as the Postmodern.

7. It is possible that God may choose to save all in the end. See #6.

8. God reveals himself to us through the Bible and through our experiences. Now that's a good pomo question. Finally!

9. The Bible doesn't tell us specific truths as much as it tells us general truths. Way too vague. Is the fact that Jesus is the Son of God a "specific" or a "general" truth?

10. The books of Romans, Ephesians, and Hebrews tell us as much about God as the Gospels do. Another good pomo question for the Christ follower to wrestle with.

11. There is nothing that we can know for sure. Including the answer to this question, I suppose. Silly. Ivory-tower silly. No one really believes this. Now, can we say "We can no much less for sure than the previous generation held as sure"? That might work.

12. The Bible should be interpreted literally. The Bible should be interpretted as it was intended to be interpretted. Perhaps if we said "in a woodenly literal fashion" it might work.

13. Everyone who has not received Christ as Savior will go to hell. Another good question (and one where I leave my more pomo brethren behind).

14. There are no such things as absolutes. Right, like this statement. It doesn't really exist, because it sets itself up as an absolute, but absolutes don't exist, so the question you just read you didn't really read. Now we're asking about existentialism, not postmodernity! Again, more ivory-tower stuff.

15. What we call good may be bad. What we call bad, may be good. That depends entirely on the basis one calls something "good" or "bad". But it does not get at the core issue of whether some things can be absolutely good or absolutely bad, nor does it address motive.

16. Some of the miraculous stories in the Bible may just be myths. That's a good pomo question (and another where I leave the pomo path).

17. God may be male, female, or even both. Another good one.

18. I see things in black and white, with very little grey. And a final good one.

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I know a lot of people who self-identify as postmodern. I am one of those people! But there's a world of difference between cultural postmodernity and academic postmodernity. This quiz utterly fails to capture that distinction.

Hatushili