2015 Ideological Turing Test [Index Post]

A conventional Turing Test checks whether a computer program can convincingly counterfeit human conversation.  An Ideological Turing Test checks whether someone can convincingly imitate the beliefs and reasoning of someone they disagree with.  It’s a way to see how well you understand the ideas you would like to debunk.

This year, I looked through your suggested questions for a Christian/Non-Christian (mostly atheist) Ideological Turing Test, and these are the questions I asked contestants to answer.

Questions For Christians:

• What sin (if any) lies at the root of all other sin? And why?
• Why, in a world of many splintered sects, should *your* tradition be trusted?
• What is an element of your tradition that is underappreciated by your fellow believers?

Questions For Non-Christians:

• Name a book that shaped your moral sensibilities (and talk a little about how) Fiction is fair game
• What role does ritual have in your life? What role would you like it to have?
• What’s a question you’re currently uncertain about, where you’d like to “flip to the back of the book” and find the answer now?

Answers Revealed:

• Winner for “the root of all sins”
• Winner for “Why trust your tradition?”
• No Winner for “Underappreciated practices”
• A Narrow Win for T.H. White in the Book Round
• The Judges Lose the Ritual Round
• Sophisters, Economists, and Calculators Succeed on Last ITT Question

Everyone had the chance to answer their own group’s questions honestly, and to make their best attempt at writing fake answers for the other side, in the hopes of passing undetected.  This week and next, I’ll be posting a selection their replies, all mixed up, and it’s your job to see if you can spot which answers are real, and which are clever (or not so clever) facsimiles.

The links above will take you to the page of submitted answers and the quizzes to vote on which replies are genuine and which are shamming.

Once voting is over, I’ll reveal everyone’s true identities, and run the numbers to see who was most convincing when imitating the other side.  I’ll update this page with links to all the analysis posts, once the game is over.

Happy puzzling!