Here’s an interesting experiment:

Leah at Unequally Yoked asked a group of 15 people (a mix of Christians and atheists) to answer a number of questions about god and religion.

The atheists were told to answer the questions honestly.

The Christians were told to answer the questions as if they were atheists.

Can you tell the difference between the two groups? Do we really know how the “other side” thinks? That’s what she wants to find out.

It’s modeled after the Turing Test, in which a human is supposed to decide whether the electronic conversation s/he’s having is with another human or with a machine.

You can take the test by clicking here. After answering a couple questions about your own background, you can see links to the 15 responses. For each, you’re asked whether you think it’s a Christian or an atheist. If you’re leaning one way but you’re not really sure, you can say “leans Christian” or “leans atheist.”

Because it’s a little annoying on the Google Doc to see the 15 different responses, use these links:

Answer 1

Answer 2

Answer 3

Answer 4

Answer 5

Answer 6

Answer 7

Answer 8

Answer 9

Answer 10

Answer 11

Answer 12

Answer 13

Answer 14

Answer 15

The polls close Sunday night, so do this soon if you’re interested!

I would ask that commenters refrain from discussing the individual responses below — just so the results are less tainted.

Leah plans to repeat the experiment in reverse afterwards — with Christians answering honestly and atheist trying to pose as them.

***Edit***: I’ve updated a few things on this post to clarify how the test works.

