• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: Xorkoth | Madness

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
^ An interesting idea, and something that I was unaware of before.

I think if you look at all religious beliefs, they are essentially saying the same thing. Perhaps something along the lines of: the world is a big, scary, lonely place in which bad things happen - but we don't know why they do. Good things also happen, but the bad ones get more publicity and tend to stick in the mind. All of this is fairly inexplicable to the average, mortal, earthbound individual. Over time people pondered these themes and came up with some comforting "answers". The ideas catch on, they live and spread for a while and then they are superceded by a newer variation on the "answer", the Truth, as it were. A thousand years from now, I imagine there will be "new" religions that take over, or at least add to, the current crop. They are all essentially the same: be nice to each other and nice things will happen. When they don't, it's all just part of the big plan, so don't worry if life here is bad because it'll all be better soon.

Jam tomorrow.


P.S. Having just stumbled across this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

I have changed my mind and am now a fundamentalist Pastafarian. Ha!
 
Aeon Psyche said:
Religions are things you believe in. The truth is something you need to understand.
Click to expand...

Re-li-gion
-noun
A philosophy one believes in strongly enough to be a douche bag about.
 
entheogenius said:
I have changed my mind and am now a fundamentalist Pastafarian. Ha!
Click to expand...

Will you spot me some weed if I go pick up your pirate suit at the dry cleaner's? 8o
 
^ No problem. Let's end this global warming menace once and for all!

One of the best reasons for my recent conversion:

The Pastafarian belief of heaven stresses that it contains beer volcanoes and a stripper factory. Hell is similar, except that the beer is stale, and the strippers have VD.

Who could possiby resist? And possibly the greatest reason for being good and not going to Hell so far. :)

The Eight "I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts" were pretty persuasive too.
 
^ I had a feeling the beer volcanoes and stripper factory had something to do with it. They almost won me over as well... and the pirate costumes...<3
 
^ Roll on September 19 (International Talk Like a Pirate Day) when we can all get in touch with our inner pirate and let out a big, soulful: "Aaaaarrrrrrr! Shiver me timbers, splice the mainbrace and roger the cabin boy!". Can't wait :).

Sorry, the pirates seem to be mounting a sneak raid on a perfectly sensible thread. I'll put them back in their box til September.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
What I'm curious about is our mysterious fourth largest religious faction: Other belief. I wish more people who voted for this category had gone into detail about their answer. Also, I wonder if most of these people adhere to a belief system that's idiosyncratic, or whether there are a number of belief systems that are well represented on BL, but left out of the poll. Gnostics? Deists? Pan[en]theists? Nihilists? Freakin' JewBus?! Stand up and be counted.
Click to expand...


I chose other because there was no undecided. Now i could pick the one religion that i thought was my favourite, but that doesn't necessarily make it any more true or realistic than any other one on the list.

Iam completely and utterly undecided. I used to think atheism made sense, but then how the fuck did we come about. Then it was re incarnation, but then how is there a higher population now then there ever was, unless extinct species lack of forest etc are being reincarnated as humans.

My point being i have no fucking clue and im not even going to bother to try and justify any belief that i WISH was correct, because there is absolutely no way to prove it.

Religion is a hope or a wish and nothing more, i refuse to choose a belief, why limit yourself. Why not think it could slide any possible direction? I truely believe that whatever comes after death or whatever other spiritual non spiritual element applies will be so inconceivable you could not use words to describe it, because no mortal could descrive something beyond mortal, its just a guess.

Then i come back to am i creating my own reality, do i exist etc vicious cycle no end, i cause myself too many problems trying to think about it, its painful for me.
 
^^^ You sound pretty damn agnostic to me, in the true and original sense of the word.

It's a shame that the euphemism treadmill has twisted the word 'agnostic' to mean more or less 'polite, non-confrontational atheist' or 'atheist who's maybe willing to admit he's wrong', both of which technically fall under the rubric of 'soft atheist'.

It's just that 90% of the people I've heard label themselves 'agnostic' then go on to describe a worldview that's decidedly within the definition of atheism. I'm fully with Richard Dawkins on one point: if you're really and truly an atheist and nothing less, have the balls to say so. Don't hijack a wonderful word and concept like 'agnostic' for the sake of politeness.
 
Last edited:
I have the balls! On a more serious note, I am an atheist, but I respect the beliefs of others all the same.
 
Id say that i was agnostic, but i cant deny that sometimes i really feel like there is something else out there, or there will be life after death or something. So im neither denying or accepting.

I think we can all agree weve had a time in out life where some sort of mystical feeling surrounds us. I sure have, and thats what stops me from being agnostic. Just because we cant prove it doesnt necessarily mean its untrue. I just prefer the undecided label.
 
My ways are decidedly apophatic, so I am unable to pick any of the listed beliefs, including the last option :).

ps. The wiki on the subject is horrendous and self-contradictory, but I guess its an introduction...
 
I voted Taoism not because it's my belief system but because I like the idea. The beliefnet quiz told me I'm a universalist unitarian, which is spot on.
 
1. Neo-Pagan 100%
2. New Age 99%
3. Liberal Quakers 90%
4. Unitarian Universalism 89%
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants 81%
6. Mahayana Buddhism 80%
7. New Thought 78%
8. Reform Judaism 71%
9. Theravada Buddhism 69%

lol the smilies tried to mess my post up. watch out for that when cut/pasting.
 
Its a decent test but I don't personally identify with any of those belief systems.. so oh well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top