Have you ever taken a multiple choice test?  Find out how multiple choice tests can help us understand our purpose here on Earth, and help us with concerns about conflicts between science and religion. 

With the recent debate about teaching creationism in schools, it’s helpful to understand, why science and religion can sometimes seem at odds with each other.

Have you ever taken a multiple choice test like the following?

 Please name the capital of Lousiana:

A. Baton Rouge.

B. New Orleans.

C. London.

D. A purple alligator.

If so, you’ll notice that there are a couple of answers that might seem logical, might seem like the right answer.  Some test takers may not have even heard of Baton Rouge, so New Orleans might be their answer. 

You’ll also notice that there are a couple of “spoiler” answers that are clearly not the right answer.  Sometimes teachers throw those in to be funny, sometimes because they can’t think of anything better to put in there.

 For a good math problem, to test whether a student understands the concept being tested, teachers will generally avoid making up numbers for the answer choices, but will do one answer using the correct method, and then come up with the other answer possibilites by following wrong processes to come up with different numbers - that way, if you don’t understand the concept, but use the numbers and an incorrect process, you’ll come up with an incorrect answer, but it WILL be among one of the choices.

I think we can all agree that it wouldn’t be a fair test if among the four choices, we found the correct answer, and then three “gimme” answers (like A purple alligator).

Wouldn’t we all agree that, if the test of life were to be valid and have eternal consequences, that it must be a fair test?  That God can’t (and doesn’t want to) simply fill in the answers for us? 

In the test of life, all of the answers might sound correct, if you didn’t know any better.  Mixed in with the correct answers are answers that could sound right to someone who didn’t know better.   Just as someone might easily have chosen “New Orleans” as the capital of Lousiana, there are choices that people make every day that they think sound like they could be the right answer.

For example - Did Joseph Smith write the Book of Mormon?

One answer (the answer I know is correct) is that he did not.  He received the Book of Mormon, and help translate it and share it with the world in our day.

Another answer, perhaps one chosen by someone who you might see yelling at the top of their lungs in protest in downtown SLC around general conference time, is that he wrote it himself, or had someone else write it for him.

Now, if both of those answers are available on the answer sheet, how are you going to know which one is correct?

How about the questions of:

Is the bible true?

Is man divinely created or a product of evolutionary changes over millions of years?

Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints the true church?

Is there a God?

Just like with the math question - if you don’t understand the right concept, you will find an answer according to your incorrect concept.  You WILL find an answer - otherwise you’d have to choose one of the other choices, against your will.  That isn’t the plan.

Now, follow me here.   If you don’t believe in God, your answer for #1 might be the same answer for the entire rest of the test.  No question you see on the rest of the test will contradict that.  You will ALWAYS have an answer that fits in with your belief system.

What I mean is, let’s take the question of “Is there a God?” for an intance.  This is the same for most every question.  If the person doesn’t believe there’s a God, and the question is “How do you explain the Book of Mormon?” They will find answers to that question which coincide with their belief.  So they will choose to believe that Joseph Smith wrote that book himself.

They’ll have answers for why, they’ll have answers for how. 

A faithful Latter Day Saint may get the question “What about Polygamy, it was here and now it’s gone.  If The Church is true, why is that principle not being lived today?”

I might answer this question like this: “I do not know exactly.  I do know that God knows all things, and that I don’t.  I know that God is in control of this Church, and we’re going to need to follow his direction.”

The person that didn’t believe in God (among others) might answer that it’s the church just doint what is expedient for them. (Of course if we ever got into a conversation, I’d ask him why if the Church was willing to change it’s doctrine because it was expedient why didn’t we do that before Joseph Smith was martyred, or before we had an extermination order put against us, or were forced to move to the middle of the desert.)

So what I’m saying is this - A believer and a non-believer come to a million questions, and each one is able to answer them and feel entirely confident in the answers they have given.

So how does someone find the correct answer?

The only way to differentiate the correct answers from the false is through the Holy Ghost.

If every man is born with the Light of Christ, then when he approaches the test, he knows enough on which we he should naturally lean.  But to balance that out, the natural man whispers to him to lean the other way.

The Light of Christ might whisper to a man to find out if God is real.  The natural man says don’t even try or ask, because you’ll have to give up a life of carnal stuff.

There must be a complete balance - that way the test is entirely fair.  If your natural inclination is to follow the Light of Christ, and to seek the spirit, then you will be able to seek and obtain the spirit, and continue to answer the questions correctly.  If a person decides, even if it’s at some of those first questions, that they really WANT the natural man answers to be correct, then after that point, their decision is made, and we can’t expect the test itself to tell him otherwise.  After all, a big part of the test is to find out how that man would choose if the decision was left up to him.

I have to admit, one day I was very dismayed to learn of a certain DNA test which supposedly conficted with some of my beliefs.  But if the researcher from that DNA test expected me to doubt my church, I’d respond with this:

What about Lucy the 6 million year old human remains from Africa?  What about Jonah living in the belly of a fish for 3 days?  Or how about this?  That the Savior walked on water, turned water into wine, the loaves and the fishes, or that he was resurrected on the third day?

Or better yet, how does science explain that The Son of God can come to Earth, live a sinless life, and atone for our sins and break the bands of death?

I realize that all of these were questions I’d already answered, and looking back at the test question of “What do you think about these DNA tests?” I had to laugh.  I know the answers that I’ve found.  I don’t know how God created the animals.  I don’t know about Dinosaurs exactly.  I don’t know HOW the Savior was able to help affect the atonement so that we can all return to live with Heavenly Father and Him.  I just know that He did.  I know it.

I do know that without the spirit, you cannot possibly hope to make a correct choice.  While all of those taking the test seem to be choosing conflicting answers, every one choosing his own path, I know that God has given us the tools to find the correct answers.  He’s given us the Light of Christ to let us know what is right and wrong, he’s given us the Holy Ghost, and he’s given us prayer.

This is my Multiple Choice Theory - That the answers can’t contain spoilers, and that no amount of studying can lead you to the right answers, only someone who is seeking the truth, and the spirit.  That God can’t answer the test for us, otherwise he would, and that most miracles happen to those that already believe, because he can’t/doesn’t want to influence us against our will.

Thanks for the soapbox time.

Love, Austin