As those of you who know me might be aware, I returned to college at the ripe old age of 35. The experience has been everything I could have ever wanted even including the crazy, multiple-personality lady from one of my learning teams (but, that is another story, which may or may not be relayed).
One of my recent classes was on human religions. The true purpose of the class is to raise awareness and understanding of other (read: non-Christian) belief systems in the hope that one or all of us will become less closed-minded and realize that underneath it all we are all the same. Our first paper was on identifying our individual belief systems. As a result of my cousin's death, I found myself thinking on my belief system even more.
I have a pathological, nay I say, biased dislike of anything remotely like an organized religion, but I also have a very strong spiritual disposition (certainly contradictory, eh? welcome to my world...). Being a big fan of those quiz things that tell you all about yourself things you (probably) already knew, I give you the Belief-o-Matic. Not to be confused with the Bass-o-Matic, folks, the Belief-o-Matic asks you a series of questions, which you then weight in importance. From there, you are given a percentage indicator of the belief systems that match the answers you have provided.
The belief-o-matic can found on www.beliefnet.com, founded by Steve Waldman former national editor for US News & World Report (according to his bio on beliefnet.).
Here are my results:
1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (93%)
3. New Age (88%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (84%)
5. Liberal Quakers (81%)
6. Secular Humanism (76%)
7. Theravada Buddhism (69%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (67%)
9. Taoism (57%)
10. Hinduism (52%)
11. Reform Judaism (52%)
12. Sikhism (52%)
13. New Thought (49%)
14. Nontheist (46%)
15. Orthodox Quaker(45%)
16. Scientology (45%)
17. Jainism (44%)
18. Bahá'í Faith (39%)
19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (29%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (27%)
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (26%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
23. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (19%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (17%)
25. Islam (17%)
26. Roman Catholic (17%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (13%)
I think the end result of the beliefnet quiz findings supports the original premise of my class. Most of our belief systems are pretty much the same. Shouldn't that tell us something?
Current Mood: Thoughtful
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