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

Choose your favourite belief or religion

  • Agnosticism

    Votes: 114 17.0%

  • Atheism

    Votes: 124 18.5%

  • Buddhism

    Votes: 129 19.3%

  • Christianity

    Votes: 74 11.1%

  • Hinduism

    Votes: 16 2.4%

  • Islam

    Votes: 10 1.5%

  • Judaism

    Votes: 15 2.2%

  • Pagan & Earth-Based

    Votes: 52 7.8%

  • Taoism

    Votes: 47 7.0%

  • Other belief

    Votes: 89 13.3%
  • Total voters
    669
I don't identify with many Conservative Christian beliefs (e.g. anti-abortion, anti-gay rights), Christian Scientists and Scientologists seem way out in left field heh.
 
[B said:
VEGAN[/B];7171136]

it was his third post and he asked for someone to explain this to him in his fourth
he may have meant it :) <<<<<I missed that part!!

(i didn't forget your message in my inbox. i just can't concentrate on a long answer these days. maybe later)[/QUOTE

^^^^

>Hey I like your posts these days they carry your essence through them! I sense you, not just head stuff alone!

>Doesn't have to be a long one>>>>> Hi :) is a shorter message :)

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On the topic:

I take the scriptures metaphorically so in this sense, they meet with transcendance and inner spirituality!
Click to expand...
 
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I got 100% Seventh-Day Adventist, which is exactly what I am, even though I don't live the way I should, I was raised as a SDA, and I believe in it. Drugs just keeps me down...
 
1. Unitarian Universalism 100%
2. Theravada Buddhism 91%
3. Neo-Pagan 89%
4. Mahayana Buddhism 77%
5. New Age 76%
6. Secular Humanism 68%
7. Liberal Quakers 66%
8. Hinduism 65%
9. Sikhism 63%
10. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants 57%
11. New Thought 57%
12. Jainism 53%
13. Scientology 52%
14. Taoism 52%
15. Reform Judaism 50%
16. Nontheist 48%
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) 34%
18. Orthodox Judaism 28%
19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) 25%
20. Orthodox Quaker 25%
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant 18%
22. Baha'i Faith 17%
23. Seventh Day Adventist 15%
24. Eastern Orthodox 15%
25. Islam 15%
26. Roman Catholic 15%
27. Jehovah's Witness 5%

Wow, I gues this just mean Im confused or I have done far to many psychadelics :)
 
About the questions posed on Islam, as to the difference between Shi'a and Sunna...

When Muhammed died he had npt picked a successor. His eldest followers met and ELECTED a successor, Abu Bak'r who was both one of Muhammed's oldest friends as well as one of his fathers-n-law via 'Aisha, his 6 year old wife.

This did not please everyone because some belived Ali ibn Abi Talib should have been chosen. Ali was Muhammed's 1st cousin, his adopted son, and also son -in-law via Fatima, Muhammed's daughter by his 1st wife Kadijah.

Ali and his supporters ate crow though, and waited for their chance.

Bak'r was already old and died before long, and was succeeded by 'Uthman who was also elected by majority. When 'Uthman was assasinated, some say by Ali's followers, Ali won the election and became the 4t Khalifa, i.e. "Leader of Islam."

Ali made some enemies as well and after less than 5 years was himself assasinated as he prayed at his HQ in what is now Karbala, Iraq.

The Khalifa was grabbed by a pretender who became the 5th Khalifa and Ali became an icon for those Muslims who had always believed that only a blood relative of Muhammed was fit to lead the faith, a very common sentiment amongst very paternalistic Arabs.

Incessant warfare continued until Ali's son Hassan was killed in what is now Iraq. Though fighting continued pretty much from that point onward, Shi'a was crystallised with Hassan's death.

The word "Shi'a' is actually an acronym for "Faction of Ali?" while "Sunna," which means "}radition" has come to signify Orthadox Islam.

Shi'a is actually an umbrella term with various groups like the Alawi (Jam, not a form of worship but actually a distinct school within Shi'a mostly only fpund in Syria though we have 3 villages in Israel), the Alavi (mostly in Turkey and though often confused with Alawi, they are distinct), Ismaili who themselves are distinct from so called "6ers" who they are often confused with, and the stereotypial Shi'a, the so called "12ers" who are really only found in Iran, eastern Iraq, Bahrain, and Azeribijan...and of course the shi&hole known as S. Lebanon thanks to active prostelysation of Iranian groupswho have managed to steer the peasantry from their synchrestic faiths (Alawi, Alavi, Druse off shoots more in line with traditional Islam, and other homegrown forms of Islam...as an aside, Ba'albek in Beka'a held Phonecian rites ubtil the 1600s CE/AD!), back tothe bosom of the 12ers.

Coincidently, the holiday Jam mentioned, Ashura? It celebrates the "Martyrdom" of Hssan in Iraq and to show their grief at this event they often literally whip themselves into frenzies and with blood spraying eveywhere end up attacking male bystanders in orgiastic violence. It was an Ashura flagelation where I had to kill my first civlian actually but enough of that. What Iran has done to Lebanon makes me sick.

Ashura actually is called Ashura Mazda which actually was originally a Zoraostrian holiday! Interesting anyway.

While Jam is correct that both Sunna and Shi'a hold the Qur'an to be sancrosanct and
immutable, they hold very different theological approaches and indeed often hate each other to the point of genocide up until the present.
 
Anyone here read the book Siddhartha? Many people identify me with him, which is an amazing thing to me, since I haven't even read the book!!

I have since learned what the book is generally about, and think people are probably right, and I got a copy of the book but haven't read more than two pages, but I already identify with it. I'd say I'm a questioning Buddhist.

I love you all.

crooked_letter.
 
I love Buddhism and what it stands for, I dont know nearly enough about it to consider myself one though.
 
I think anyone even remotely considering conversion to Buddhism would be well served in reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I am not a devotee of hers in any real way, only to say that with regard to that Western interest in all things Eastern, specifically Buddhism, she did nail it on the head.
 
I define myself as an aetheist for the purposes of the poll.
At a very young age I was Christian, although that was because I grew up in a very small country town where scripture was a weekly school subject, much like sport, even though it was a public school.
As a teen I looked into paganism and buddhism, and they remain my favourite religions. If my beliefs are ever shaken to the core and I discover a passion for deity, one of those two will get my vote.
My atheism is not a get out of gaol free card, a way to feel no guilt for immoral or bad behaviour. I can argue til I'm blue in the face for my beliefs.
However, I have a decent amount of respect for most moderate religions. I'm also aware of their many pit-falls.

I just can't bring myself to believe in deity or supernatural mythology, in heaven and hell or any other kind of afterlife. Sometimes I wish I did, the death of loved ones would be a lot easier to handle.

So yes, I'm an Atheist,
But mostly,
I'm just faithless
 
Belief o matic is retarded

I got this

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (90%)
3. Secular Humanism (90%)
4. Liberal Quakers (87%)
5. New Age (83%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (76)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (70%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (67%)
9. Taoism (65%)
10. Nontheist (64%)
11. Orthodox Quaker (43%)
12. Scientology (43%)
13. Hinduism (42%)
14. New Thought (42%)
15. Reform Judaism (41%)
16. Jainism (39%)
17. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
18. Baha'i Faith (30%)
19. Sikhism (26%)
20. Seventh Day Adventist (19%
21. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (17%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (14%)
23. Orthodox Judaism (13%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (11%)
25. Islam (11%)
26. Roman Catholic (11%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (8%)
 
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I had to choose Hinduism, because Samkhya and Yogic Hindu philosophy seems to cover most of the bases in terms of spiritual thought for me. But Buddhism and Jainism also have a lot of concepts which I think are spot on, and to me, all three are part of the same kind of thought. Hinduism has the concept of Brahman that the other Dharmic religions lack, which is why I chose it. Brahman is sort of the underlying soul and consciousness of everything in the Universe.
 
^ A really neat property of Hinduism, to me at least, is that it has a place in its cosmology for all other faiths and systems of belief. (Jesus is seen as an avatar of Vishnu, for example). It is, in its most stripped down definition, a culturally Indian perspective on all spirituality in general. All worldviews are really compatible with Hinduism, because any can be filtered through a traditional Indian metaphysical perspective. The flipside of this is that Hinduism doesn't export well -- one cannot truly understand what it feels like to be Hindu without a good understanding and familiarity with the Indian cultural and social mindset.

Buddhism (Dharmic), and Islam (Abrahamic), by contrast, are really designed to be exportable across cultural boundaries. They are worded and transmitted in such a way that can be grasped, appreciated, and integrated even by people who have little in common with the religions' founders.

This is not a statement of endorsement of any kind, on my part. Just an interesting aside about the sociology of religion.
 
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (89%)
3. New Thought (85%)
4. Neo-Pagan (85%)
5. New Age (85%)
6. Scientology (79%)
7. Reform Judaism (76%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (72%)
9. Mahayana Buddhism (70%)
10. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (70%)
20. Catholic (3%) <------ This is funny to me because it is the religion I was brought up under and was the root for most arguments with my parents between ages of 10 and 16 because of how very little sense it made and my lack of ability to identify with it's major beliefs
 
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MyDoorsAreOpen said:
^ A really neat property of Hinduism, to me at least, is that it has a place in its cosmology for all other faiths and systems of belief. (Jesus is seen as an avatar of Vishnu, for example). It is, in its most stripped down definition, a culturally Indian perspective on all spirituality in general. All worldviews are really compatible with Hinduism, because any can be filtered through a traditional Indian metaphysical perspective. The flipside of this is that Hinduism doesn't export well -- one cannot truly understand what it feels like to be Hindu without a good understanding and familiarity with the Indian cultural and social mindset.

Buddhism (Dharmic), and Islam (Abrahamic), by contrast, are really designed to be exportable across cultural boundaries. They are worded and transmitted in such a way that can be grasped, appreciated, and integrated even by people who have little in common with the religions' founders.

This is not a statement of endorsement of any kind, on my part. Just an interesting aside about the sociology of religion.
Click to expand...

The syncretistic nature of it is really one of it's more unique points for sure, and is definitely influenced by an Indian perspective. I think it has something to do with the fact that India is one of the oldest, if not the oldest extant culture, and one of the most culturally diverse and dense of population. One writer described it not as a religion, but as "the religions of Hinduism."

You can see it's evolution from an ancient 'feed angry gods with sacrifices' sort of belief, to a monistic sort of religion, through to a subjective, philosophical type of spirituality parallel to Buddhism in many ways by the time of Patanjali.

The reason I identify with Hinduism more than any other established religion, (with the exception of Discordianism) and not, say, Theravada Buddhism is because the concept of Brahman, or the idea of the soul and consciousness of everything and part of everything isn't really elaborated upon in the way that it has been in Hindu theology. It's vaguely touched upon in Gnostic traditions, somewhat ignored or only partially recognized in Buddhism and Jainism, and over-personified in popular Abrahamic religion.
 
^ I agree. The Hindu concept of the godhead (Isvara) definitely resonates with me as well. Given the immensely diverse human landscape in which Hinduism evolved, I think the Hindu notion of divinity would be a great starting point for any and all attempts at interfaith dialogue: The real God is unknowable and entirely without form or attributes, so metaphors, art, and imaginative imagery will have to suffice in giving us some grasp.
 
I am an atheist. Have been since I was old enough to think for my self about such issues. I think Richard Dawkins put it well when he stated that children should not be considered "christian children" or "muslim children" Instead they should be considered "children of <insert faith here> parents"
I was fortunate enough to be raised by athiest parents who taught me to question everything. I guess the hard work was done by both of my parents as they were raised as christians but changed their minds in their teenage years.

I have met many christians and others that have tried their mind games to convert me over the years. Each time that happens I tend to go out of my way to do some research about their religion, so if it happens again I am better prepared for debate.



My results from that link at the start:

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (89%)
3. Liberal Quakers (77%)
4. Nontheist (72%)
5. Neo-Pagan (66%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (66%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (63%)
8. New Age (53%)
9. Taoism (50%)
10. Mahayana Buddhism (46%)
11. Orthodox Quaker (44%)
12. Reform Judaism (42%)
13. Jainism (33%)
14. Baha'i Faith (31%)
15. Sikhism (29%)
16. Scientology (28%)
17. New Thought (26%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (23%)
19. Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
20. Hinduism (21%)
21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (19%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (18%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
24. Islam (16%)
25. Orthodox Judaism (16%)
26. Roman Catholic (16%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (13%)

There seems to be an awful lot of religions / faiths missing from this list! Why no examples from the Africa, Pacific Islands, Australia or even The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? (ok joking on the last one)
 
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