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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Chesterton say is most present in the mind of man?
(a) His existence itself.
(b) Survival.
(c) Fear.
(d) Reproduction.

2. What does Chesterton take as evidence that evolution is flawed as a way to define the origins of man?
(a) The changing nature of the theories.
(b) None of these.
(c) The fact that mankind is apparently not evolving now.
(d) The missing link.

3. What does Chesterton say of the more advanced non-western cultures?
(a) They were more barbaric and their religion darker.
(b) They were more enlightened and closer to monotheism.
(c) They had stricter moral rules of relgious conduct.
(d) They had more fanciful and less dark mythologies.

4. What does Chesterton imply made the difference in the battle of Carthage and Rome?
(a) The nature of their religion.
(b) The dedication of the soldiers.
(c) The prowess of their military commanders.
(d) The financial backing.

5. How does Chesterton interpret the title of the book, "The Evolution of the Idea of God"?
(a) The growth of understanding morality.
(b) How mankind has lost their way.
(c) How God changes to suit the needs of every time and place.
(d) I will show you how this nonsensical notion that there is a God grew up among men.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chesterton think of the theory that mankind is solely motivated by economic reasons of subsistence?

2. What does Chesterton compare to the variation found in cheeses or wine?

3. What does say Chesterton say would have been very different if the battle between Carthage and Rome were different?

4. In what way does Chesterton say the philosophers gained great influence?

5. What aspect of the cave-man does Chesterton find greatly important?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Chesterton's analysis of symbols such as the circle, the swastika, and the cross?

2. What parallel does Chesterton make between social structure and cannibalism? Explain.

3. How does Chesterton refute the idea that religion came from people's experiences with authority, dreams, and the cycles of life?

4. Explain what Chesterton was trying to explain with his example of the horse and rider.

5. How does Troy and the Iliad enter into Chesterton's argument?

6. In the beginning of the introduction, Chesterton uses an analogy of a boy leaving his farmland home and looking back on his homeland as he does so. What is he trying to explain or make clear with this analogy?

7. Chesterton says he wants to reclassify religions. What does he mean and how does he intend to do it?

8. What simple truth about mankind does Chesterton deduce from his discussion of the cave drawings? What arguments does he make?

9. Explain how and why, according to Chesterton, the pace at which things move changes our perception of them.

10. How well does Chesterton think science is explaining the origins of mankind? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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