What religion most reflects your views: Belief-O-Matic Quiz with poll (updated)

[Vimana]

1. Jainism (100%)
2. Mahayana Buddhism (97%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (97%)
4. Hinduism (96%)
5. Liberal Quakers (95%)
6. New Thought (92%)
7. Bahá'í Faith (89%)
8. New Age (88%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (87%)
10. Scientology (86%)
11. Orthodox Quaker (84%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (83%)
13. Taoism (80%)
14. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)

Yeah well, thats what you get when you decide to take a fucking PERSONALITY TEST on a fucking COMPUTER. What better to judge your personality and most intimate spiritual beliefs then a test that tries to categorize people into defined organized religions, each with their own complex philosophic idiosyncrasies, created by somebody that has never met you or 'your type'. People don't have types, certain people may have similar traits but each is an individual. Probably written by some sanctimonious cunt with a PHD and a 'God complex'

 

[TRPPNASS_DSCOMONKE]

I can tell you with out a quiz, panentheism. or maybe mysticism.

 

[Ernestrome]

1. Unitarian Universalism (100% )
2. Liberal Quakers (88% )
3. Theravada Buddhism (84% )
4. Secular Humanism (82% )
5. Taoism (80% )
6. Neo-Pagan (74% )
7. Mahayana Buddhism (74% )
8. New Age (72% )
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (72% )
10. Nontheist (67% )
11. Jainism (55% )
12. Orthodox Quaker (55% )
13. Scientology (55% )
14. Hinduism (51% )
15. New Thought (51% )

 

[BurnOneDown]

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Theravada Buddhism (96%)
3. Secular Humanism (82%)
4. Liberal Quakers (79%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (71%)
6. Neo-Pagan (71%)
7. Taoism (66%)
8. New Age (62%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (56%)
10. Nontheist (55%)

I had to wiki unitarian universalism, but I really appreciated the belief. Very open minded, practical, and benevolent in a general sense. I disagree with some of their essential spiritual views and I could never be part of a spiritual practice that is at all organized and practiced in ceremony. It's just good to learn about an organization that is promoting an appreciation of diversification and personal responsibility.

 

[ebola?]

There was another thread like this. I'mma try to merge now.

ebola

 

[Ernestrome]

B9, Ken Kesey had a bit of fun with the Uniatarian Church in the '60's I believe, as recounted in the Acid Test...

I haven't got round to that yet, can you briefly tell me what sort of fun?

I went to a unitarian church in england. I think they might've been willing to give entheogen use 'shelter' within their church.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

I've been fascinated by this poll for a long time. I wonder how good a representation of the whole BL community this is.

I'd even consider sending this poll around to other forums, to see if the results changed any.

 

[Jamshyd]

^ Probably not something to put too much thought into. Its kinda difficult to take seriously something titled "belief-o-matic"

ps. Ebola, I love your grammatical correctness: "I'mma"

I completely disagree with my results:

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Mahayana Buddhism (98%)
3. New Age (93%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (88%)
6. Liberal Quakers (87%)
7. Taoism (84%)
8. Hinduism (75%)
9. Jainism (72%)
10. Secular Humanism (64%)
11. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (63%)
12. New Thought (62%)
13. Scientology (61%)
14. Orthodox Quaker (55%)
15. Sikhism (54%)
16. Reform Judaism (52%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (51%)
18. Bahá'í Faith (43%)
19. Nontheist (35%)
20. Seventh Day Adventist (29%)
21. Orthodox Judaism (26%)
22. Islam (22%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (20%)
24. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (19%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (18%)
26. Roman Catholic (18%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (15%)

Although...

Sufism/Gnostism

...fits the bill to the T.

 

[ebola?]

OT:
>>ps. Ebola, I love your grammatical correctness: "I'mma" >>

This one's tricky for me, as 'going to' doesn't have an 'a' in it, so I don't really know where to put the apostrophe or if I need 2 ms.
...
Yup. I find describing my beliefs a good bit more accurate than the quiz.

ebola

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

It amazes me how often Unitarian Universalism rises to the top of people's lists. This to me indicates some kind of methodological flaw in the test -- either questions that skew people in that direction, or an inherent bias on the person who designed the test. Or maybe it says something about the people likely to go to that webpage!

Could any list of belief systems ever be exhaustive? That's like asking someone to name all the musical genres there are. I say at any given time and place, the list of belief systems looks like the right half of a Gaussian curve -- a few large categories catch most people, but the list of smaller categories continues on out to infinity.

Add another level of complication when you realize that any belief label is dynamic, both in the number of people who claim it, as well as what specific articles of faith that belief label carries. Just because we both label ourselves 'Neo-pagan' (to use the most salient example), does not mean we have a matching set of specific beliefs, nor that we both believe each item with the same amount of zeal.

 

[Jamshyd]

^ You are right, the list is flawed.

The list offers a lot (all?) of Christian sects (as separate "religions" nontheless... Liber and Orthodox Quakers as separate religions?? come on!). These include UU. If this were to be done with christianity, then it is only fair to do it with other religions. There is greater variety between different types of Hindu and "neo pagan" beliefs than there is between Christian sects. What about Shinto, of which every Japanese person is by default a practitioner? And what about sunni vs shi'a Islam? Sufi thought? Orthodox and radical Judaism, and everything in between?

If anything, the poll betrays a background in Christian theology, and not much else.

Then again I have reason to think that beliefnet is itself a Unitarian Universalist site.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

^^^ Well, as a person who'd consider himself a Universalist (but not a Unitarian), I can see how it might take someone raised in the UU tradition to even create a page like that. It would definitely take someone who is not hostile to religion in general -- the pages comparing different religions that are even slightly irreverant or funny tend to be made by, and mostly attract, atheists, IME. It would also take someone who has no particular bias toward any religious tradition, but sees things from a decidedly Western vantage point. This all sounds pretty UU to me.

I'd also like to see Sufism represented in the list -- it's a decidedly different animal, theologically, from the rest of Islam.

Jam, I was given to understand that the difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam is more one of authority or lineage, than one of doctrine or practice. I was also given to understand that until recently with the spread of Wahhabism, different Muslim communities around the world maintained some very distinct local traditions that varied a lot from place to place, and freely incorporated local folk religious and esoteric traditions that predate Islam. Is this accurate?

Most Western academics accept Shinto's reclassification as a tribal-animist belief system, rather than as a major world faith, for its theological structure, probable evolutionary history, and worldwide influence. It's Japan's 'pagan religion' or 'indigenous religion', which, unusually for an industrially developed nation, remains largely intact since antiquity; that is to say, none of the important lore, traditions, or holy artifacts have been lost or eradicated.

I would say about the same thing about Hinduism, except replacing 'Japan' with 'India' -- it's simply the traditional religious component to being Indian.

 

[GoddessLSD-XTC]

Logos-Logic will save U.
(A soul-mate or Best Friend Forever helps.)
I also know god & karma exists 'cause I've experienced miracles.
It's okay if U don't know God as it is okay if Ur a virgin and haven't experienced sex.
To "know God" is to have sex (an intimate relationship) with God, belief that "everything happens for a reason."

 

[Jamshyd]

Very interesting points, MDAO.

Re: Sufi practice, it most definitely is very different from mainstream Islamic practice. Worthy of note is that it was the Sufis who spread "Islam" to Central Asia, and that is why Central Asian "Islam" still retains traces of Tengrism, Ancestor/Saint worship, and above all, mysticism. Oh, and Vodka .

Re: Sunni vs Shi'a: Yes, the main difference is political. All sects of Islam (as there are several within Shi'a and Sunni comes in two main flavours, Hanbali and Shafi'i) maintain that the Koran is the literal, infallable word of God. However, Shi'a have evolved their own practises such as Ashura and the Alawi shahada. The Shi'a also have their own tradition of Imams that the Sunnis simply do not recognize. It is also notable that the Ism'aili Shi'a tend to classify themselves as "Esoteric" (Batiniia) and are therefore far more accepting of Sufism than any other Islamic sect.

As for Shinto and Hinduism, I would agree that Shinto is more of a tribal practice. However, I would say that Shinto is very much a "state religion" with heavy connections to nationalist sentiment while Hindu practice is not tied politically to Indian nationalism (at least, not in the majority).

It seems to me that the Japanese, seeing themselves as the grandchildren of Amateseru, tend to view themselves as slightly more perfect than other humans.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Wow Jamshyd -- it's amazing how good Islam's most vocal spokespeople are about presenting their religion as a homogenous front worldwide. Or maybe it's just that from a distance, it's easy to see forest and hard to see trees. My wife was quite surprised to learn that different Christian denominations have worship services that are structured quite differently, and theologies that don't jibe. She'd thought the different labels like 'Roman Catholic' or 'Congregational' were just part of the name of the church.

I'd say there's hope for Islam yet, though probably not in our lifetimes, as soon as Wahhabism runs out of fuel (literally!), so long as the faith never gets fully steamrolled over and homogenized. It's a religion I respect very much on paper, and it would make me happy to see the some of the 'deeper' schools of it thrive.

Having been to India during a time of political violence (a bit scary!) I regret to say that there are quite a few Hindu ultranationalist groups active. Many are simply committed to retaliatory attacks against Muslims. Others are in it simply to ensure that India doesn't cede any more land to anyone. But the most extremist ones have it as their goal to cleanse India of all non-Hindus.

In Japan, the ultranationalist factions are sloppier about hiding their connections to political parties, and don't seem to play up their religious side so much. In fact, since WWII, Japan has really put on a secular face as much as possible, though it's easy to see that a lot of their traditions, though framed in secular terms nowadays, came from religious contexts not too long ago.

 

[Jamshyd]

^ Indeed, a lot of non-social scientists whom I met in Japan seem to not realize at all the effect that Shinto has on almost every aspect of "secularized" Japanese life. As for militant hindus, I was unaware of how much emphasis they put on religion, thanks for clarifying.

I forgot to comment on Wahhabism. I honestly have no idea where that came out of, although I suspect it has something to do with (as you have suggested) oil power. Wahhabis are everything bad you ever heard about Islam, and more. They are also the most staunch opposers of anything remotely esoteric (I assume, because no matter how powerful/rich a ruler gets, he cannot control what goes on underground).

I am not sure just how easy it would be to unite everyone. Theoretically, Suni and Shi'a have coexisted peacefully since the caliphate. Iraq seems to disagree. So does Lebanon (as if Christian-Muslim conflicts were not enough), and so do Syria and Iran. The list goes on. While growing up in Jordan I've never personally witnessed conflicts between Sunnis and Shi'a, I did notice the extreme absence of Shi'a. I've heard about those slightly heretical people but I never met them. It seems that, like homosexuality, Shi'a is such taboo in Suni society that they simply aren't brought up. For all intents and purposes, neither one is Muslim in the eyes of the other.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

^^^ He-who-must-not-be-spoken-of

It's amazing the lengths some people will go to to remain living in a little bubble. You can tell volumes about a group of people from what they REFUSE to talk about, dontcha think?

 

[B9]

I'd also like to see Sufism represented in the list -- it's a decidedly different animal, theologically, from the rest of Islam.

Absolutely agree - I reckon ( & yeah I speculate ) that Sufism may well predate Islam & simply allowed Islam to incorpoprate it - discretion being the better part of valour & all that, or they weren't that ego/dogma driven to think it mattered that much, which fits nicely with what I know about Sufism ( which isn't much) but enough to know it's primarily spiritual as opposed to religious.

I'm not quite sure why I think that - however think it I do

 

[Jamshyd]

^ In all honesty, no... sorry my friend .

Sufi thought began in the 9th century AD, about two centuries after Muhammad. It is widely considered (but still arguable, for sure) that "Sufism" was sort of "sparked" by the tension between Junayd and his disciple, Al-Hallaj. The mystics that followed were split into the "Intoxicated School" (no McKenna, they weren't refering to shrooms!), following Al-Hallaj; and the "Sober" school, following Junayd. This was pretty much the first time there had been a structure to Islamic mysticism (mind you, the structure itself was only realized by later Sufi writers).

Junayd, while being mystical, did not really bring anything new home. He was simply a very passionate Muslim who believed in the essence of Islam: complete surrender to God's will. Still, he is highly considered by later Sufis and is general classified by them as one. One of the most important followers of the "sober" school is the very famous Islamic Theosophist Al-Ghazali.

And so heterodox Sufism (the one familiar to most of us, with followers such as Rumi) really started as Hallaj's attempt to reform Islam, with which Junayd disagreed. The latter thought that Islam as-is could provide for a mystical experience, while the former thought that Islam was too dogmatic to allow for it. The mystics that followed usually would align themselves with one or the other, or have that done to them postmortem by later Sufis who documented their lives. In the middle ages, when sufi thought began to spread more widely, people formed Tariqas ("Ways" - the arabic equivalent of orders) which loosely aligned themselves with Sunni or Shi'a Islam (but most were all-accepting).

To be sure, it is not unlikely that there was the odd Majdhub (the arabic equivalent of a raving lunatic) here and there during the first 200 years of Islam. But the thoughts of these people (if they had any ) were never similar, nor documented, nor coinciding in any way, and it is very unlikely that Hallaj (or Junayd) was influenced by them.

An other big factor that most definitely DID influence Al-Hallaj was Zoroastrianism, since his grandfather was Zoroastrian. And wherever we find Zoroastriansm, we are surely to find Manicheaism (especially in what is modern-day Iraq and eastern Iran - Hallaj's homeland), and so by extension, Gnostic thought.

It is also documented that Hallaj travelled to India and lived there for a while and so was deeply influenced by Hindu (and maybe Buddhist) thought.

I hope this sheds some light on the origins of Sufi thought, I absolutely adore the subject, and would love to hear any questions anyone might have about it .

EDIT: If I were to quote a source for the above info, my main source would be The Mystical Dimensions of Islam by Annemarie Schimmel, a tome of serious scholarly research into the history and practises of Islamic Mystics. I highly recommended if you are really interested although a strong background knowledge of Islam and mid-eastern history and geography would help. I'll try to find a book or site that can offer this, and I'll let you know

This, in fact, is why I think serious study of Sufi thought and history remains out of the mainstream. I would say it is pretty impenetrable for the average person - or average scholar for that matter - without a background in Islamic studies.

 

[ChillinJ]

Did the quiz go figure I go to a RC school, and got 9%

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%
2. Liberal Quakers (99%
3. Mahayana Buddhism (95%
4. Neo-Pagan (92%
5. New Age (85%
6. Theravada Buddhism (83%
7. Reform Judaism (80%
8. Jainism (79%
9. Bahá'í Faith (78%
10Taoism (75%