Barbie posted the link to a quiz on Beliefnet last week. It took me awhile to complete the quiz because it's actually a serious quiz that I needed to read carefully and think about when choosing my answers. Not one of those frivolous ones I've been known to have fun with.
I've finally completed it, and pondered whether or not I would share the results here, and finally decided to. Mostly for myself, as a way of keeping the results so that if in future I want to retake the quiz I can see where I've grown or changed. I know that these results are very different than the results I would have gotten if I'd taken the quiz 15 years ago.
The quiz is designed to show where your own beliefs fit with various religions. It's interesting to me because I don't identify myself much with human-made religions, yet know that I am a deeply spiritual person. I've learned that humans make rules and decisions, draw conclusions and decide on truths which are not necessarily conducive to helping individuals along the path of discovering their own spirituality, or God, or universal truth, or enlightenment, or whatever you wish to call it. So I was intrigued to see my results. Make of them what you will, or make nothing of them, read them or don't, this is one blog that's more for myself than anyone else. Take the quiz yourself or don't, I'm a firm believer that each person must follow their own path when it comes to spirituality. I may share my story with others, but I'm secure enough in my life that I don't need to force others to accept what's right for me as their own truth. When others follow their own path even though it's different from mine I do not feel invalidated, because someone else' choice is not a reflection of me.
I do find the matches at the bottom amusing, in that since I only have 7% agreement with a religion, can we really say I'm compatible with it at all? Honestly, once you're below 70% why would you consider identifying as such? I don't know, I wouldn't, but then again I'm probably a bad example to figure all this out, since I don't really like to label myself at all.
If you do take the quiz, I challenge you to answer the questions and give them weight based on what you really believe, in your heart, and not just based on what you've always been taught, told, or heard in your own places of spiritual worship and learning. It would have been easy to click the answer that my birth religion taught me, I was very well indoctrinated. But when I really examined my feelings and beliefs, many answers were different, and a couple were even downright challenging.
Happy Saturday!
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (97%)
3. Liberal Quakers (95%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (88%)
5. New Age (86%)
6. Reform Judaism (84%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%)
8. Secular Humanism (78%)
9. New Thought (78%)
10. Scientology (73%)
11. Theravada Buddhism (73%)
12. Taosim (70%)
13. Baha'iFaith (67%)
14. Hinduism (63%)
15. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (62%)
16. Sikhism (58%)
17. Jainism (55%)
18. Orthodox Quaker (55%)
19. Nontheist (48%)
20. Orthodox Judaism (47%)
21. Islam (40%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (33%)
23. Seventh Day Adventist (29%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (23%)
25. Roman Catholic (23%)
26. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) (22%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (7%)
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I'm so glad you took it. Where do you think you would have been 15 years ago?
ReplyDeleteSecular Humanism (100%)
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd join in.
Barbie, I was sure about the results, but being the OCD person that I am, and somewhat anal retentive, lol, I retook the test just now using the answers that I know I would have chosen back then.
ReplyDeleteI was right about the results too - Mainline Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%).
Very different from how I see things today. For me it's been the difference between seeing things in black and white/right and wrong, and instead recognizing that all is really shades of gray and a sliding scale. Some of my core beliefs are the same although perhaps I express those core beliefs slightly differently.
Mr C - so cool to see your results - were you surprised by answer or quite expecting it?
Hello Tapestry,
ReplyDeleteI was brought up going to a Church of England School. But being C of E you could hardly call it indoctrination. (You could hardly call it religion really).
If you ask a C of E vicar if he believes in God he will probably say something like. "Well you know, there is a very fine case for there actually being a God. On the other hand many would say that there is no God. It all comes down to the individual really.....and faith obviously."
What ever you do, don't ask him if he has faith, as he may well faint, or run from the room screaming!
I wasn't really surprised by the result, although being ignorant I didn't know what they would call it, but it's me alright.
I've been remiss - Mr C your description of the C of E Vicar was probably dead-on (I wouldn't know) but it certainly had me in stitches! Thanks for the laugh and the explanation.
ReplyDeleteSomething else I've realized as I've pondered all these things, is that most of what separates my views now from when I was younger is in HOW I label my beliefs. The words I use to describe how I view spiritual matters are different than the words I used back then.
I doubt seriously if there are any Mainline Conservative Christians who could accept that I could share their faith since I won't agree to use some of their terminology and labels.
But it's of no matter to me, I'm quite content in the place I find myself.