Today’s throwback is from January 2009.
One of my favorite websites is Beliefnet It’s a treasure trove of information about all the major worlds religions. It’s an especially good place to go if one is searching for others who may fall within your same religious beliefs.
My favorite part of Belief.net is the Belief-O-Matic. It’s a fun test to take in which you answer a series of questions about your beliefs. Once done, the Belief-O-Matic will provide a list of approx 25 religions or belief systems and will give you a percentage which shows how closely your beliefs are in line with those. Here’s the top nine that were on my list:
- Secular Humanist
- Unitarian Universalist
- Liberal Quakerism
- Atheism
- Liberal Christian Protestantism
- Taoism
- Theravada Buddhism
- Reformed Judaism
- Mahayana Buddhism
My results aren’t surprising because I am a Unitarian Universalist who practices Buddhism and I’ve always had a huge respect for Quakers.
Beliefnet has descriptions of virtually every religion you can imagine, so you can check the results you get if you’re not sure what the religion is,
Go ahead and follow this link to the Belief-O-Matic. If you’re up to it, post the five top results in the comments section. It will be fun to see how similar or different we all are. Anything surprising?
One note: They’ve made a change that now requires you to enter your name and email to use the Belief-O-Matic. I put in a fake name and email address and it worked fine, so you can do the same if you’d prefer.
I got one result: Secular Humanism.
One result? That’s odd. They must have changed it,
i got one result__unitarian universalist
Were you surprised?
yes, i actually thought it would show atheist. i have been brought up that way, and it is only recently i have begun questioning faith and belief and the possibility of something more. so i wasn’t sure what results i’d get!
I’d guess half the people in the Unitarian Universalist church where we go are atheists.
that’s interesting. i never would have guessed. something to consider maybe.
I’m about to eat dinner, but I might come back and try that later. I’m quite sure I know what I am…but hey – never hurts to do a little soul searching!
Anyway, I wanted to say I saw you in this month’s edition of bp Hope! I was like, “Hey! I know that guy! Except, you know, not really…” Ha ha. It was a great article, and I liked your part in it. 🙂
Wow! I’m a celebrity. lol I thought the article was very well written.
One Answer:
Your result is
Unitarian Universalism
Your beliefs match closest with Unitarian Universalism!
But then they give you percentages of different religions. I scored very low in all of them. Nothing higher than 4% I guess that is what happens when you are an open minded Catholic. 🙂
I’m not surprised at the UU match. They changed their formulas from the past. You use to get higher percentages for the other religions which made it more interesting.
I am a big ol Unitarian Universalist, but I think you knew that 🙂 The Belief-O-Matic is what took me to the Unitarian Church back in 2003.
Really? There’s a lot of people out there who are Unitarian but don’t know it
Yep, really. Previously, I hadn’t known it existed.
Only result: Secular Humanism.
Is it what you expected?
Yes ?
My 4 highest were: Unitarian Universalism, Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Secular Humanism. The only one that surprised me was Unitarian Universalism.
There are many Unitarian Universalists who are Buddhists and Humanists
It surprised me because I have never heard of Unitarian Universalism before now.
I remember when they used to give out multiple results, but I think that has gone by the wayside. Mine said “New Age” and I think that’s as close as it could get lol
Yes, I prefer the way they used to do it. I found it much more interesting.
And eye opening. I remember when I took it the first time, I’d never heard of UU-and many of the other high rankers. So I did more research. And it showed me definitively that we’re not so different-no matter what label we use.
Well, I’d say there’s huge differences in regards to some religions, but you’re right, many similarities too.
Also true. A lot of it, I think is interpretation and politics, unfortunately.
I got Liberal Quakerism, which did surprise me (but in matters of faith, I am easily surprised). I’m definitely going to look more into this. Thank you, Bradley, for such an awesome idea which allows us to discover more about ourselves and each other!
(Other results: Taoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Unitarian Universalism, but nothing more than 6%!)
I’m glad it’s given you an opportunity for reflection. There’s all kinds of good stuff on that site.