Every few years I take this quiz called the Belief-O-Matic on the wonderful pan-denominational religion site Beliefnet. Just to see if I should be attending church again, or something.
Anyway, my results never change much. Neo-Pagan is always at the top, and I think my top 5 are always the same. I think it's interesting, given my religious upbringing, or rather, the ways in which my upbringing was and was not religious. I was christened Anglican and went to Sunday School until I was about 10, but I also went to an alternative school where there was a Goddess Club until about the same age. Then the only parent (of four) who had a continued interest in religion was Catholic, so I went to Catholic masses at Christmas and the occasional Easter.
I have one major stumbling-block when it comes to Christianity and religion in general, and I think that it is also the reason I come up as "Neo-Pagan" on so many of these types of tests. I cannot accept any religion taking primacy over another. I cannot imagine the universe any other way but as a plurality, a dharma-wheel of multiple paths all leading to the same end, be it enlightenment or salvation. At 13 I refused to be confirmed because the ritual involved swearing to monotheism, which I could not in good conscience do. And yet, I like both Catholicism and Anglicanism, warts and all. I just wish I could accept them for myself, without a concomitant obligation to deny the faiths of others.
1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (93%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
4. Reform Judaism (90%)
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (89%)
6. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
7. New Age (82%)
8. Orthodox Quaker (76%)
9. Bahá'í Faith (76%)
10. Theravada Buddhism (75%)
11. Sikhism (74%)
12. Jainism (73%)
13. Islam (65%)
14. Orthodox Judaism (65%)
15. Secular Humanism (63%)
16. Scientology (61%)
17. Taoism (58%)
18. Hinduism (57%)
19. New Thought (54%)
20. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (52%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (48%)
22. Eastern Orthodox (44%)
23. Roman Catholic (44%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (41%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (39%)
26. Nontheist (32%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (29%)
Purely FYI, and c/o Wikipedia:
3 comments:
Hi there sarah!
I think...and correct me if I'm wrong...you can still subscribe to the monotheistic faith while maintaining the belief that the main trifecta of religions (plus buddhism, bahaism, etc.) all be paths to the same "God"/truth.
Oh! Stephen Fry's blog is pretty awesome...
You certainly can, but I'd go further. I'm not personally prepared to say that there is only one deity. Would that make me agtheistic? Anyhoo, that's kind of a sticking point for all the Christian denoms I'd normally fall in to.
Agtheistic! What a term :)
While I am not as adventurous as you to say that there is more than 1 deity, I do believe that religion is much more complex and beautiful (apologize for the sap) than the phenomenon that most people too easily reject of accept & then settle into 1 "type" in complete denuniciation of all others.
Sarah, i like your religion posts.
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