Seven Deadly Quizzes

I took all seven of the Deadly Sins assessments over at BeliefNet. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, considering what a heathen I am.

A couple of them I even took over because I'm really not all that virtuous. There were a couple of questions that I couldn't really answer in a meaningful way because they were about TV shows I've never seen or celebrities I've never heard of.

I suspect that the tests aren't very good instruments for measuring actual sinfulness, because even after do-overs, I still didn't do at all well on Pride, Anger, Envy, or even Gluttony. I mean, Gluttony, for crying out loud. How hard is that? But at least I had a respectable score on Lust and Sloth, and they are my favorites.

By the way, here's a little trick for remembering all seven of the deadly sins, should you need to name them: PALE GAS. Pride, Anger, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice, and Sloth. Of course some lists call anger "wrath" and avarice "greed" which messes it up. Too many consonants.

So here are my results. The website doesn't provide any nifty graphics or handy code to post results on your blog, and the scoring is kind of eccentric. I calculated the percentages myself, but basically, the scores were grouped in three or four categories of increasing sinfulness. The ones marked with asterisks are the ones where my score fell in the second-lowest bracket. I re-took Greed and Sloth and moved up to that category in each. All the others I was in the lowest (i.e. most virtuous) category, even though I re-did Pride and Anger and Envy. I tried, people.

• Pride: 4/24 (17%) - "You might want to work on your self-esteem"
• Anger (Wrath): 5/27 (19%) - "You're a most patient person ... or about to blow like Mt. St. Helen's"
• Lust: 15/32 (47%!)* - "Your body isn't a temple, but it isn't a fast-food joint either"
• Envy: 2/24 (8%) - "Your freedom from sin is enviable"
• Gluttony: 9/41 (22%) - "Spiritually, you might be a bit too thin"
• Avarice (Greed): 11/37 (30%)* - "Your generosity outweighs your greed"
• Sloth: 9/25 (36%)* - "Your life is a good balance between activity and relaxation, but like most of us, you could use a spiritual supplement"

Image: detail from The Seven Deadly Sins by Hieronymus Bosch. Stolen from ibiblio.org's WebMuseum.