Belief Quiz

[Dualnames]

Quiz+religion.

Dualnames prepares for the flaming.

[Monsieur OUXX]

<Flaming initialized....>

I find it very strange to read "secular humanism" in that long list of religions...

This expression is marrying a trend of philosophy (humanism) with a choice of society organization (secularism)
None of those 2 items has anything to do with religions, as opposed to the rest of the list.


I spot the same sort of confusion in labelling "secualr humanism" a religion, as when I read in other places that "atheism is a religion" -- which is clearly also a paradox. Believers seem to fail understanding the complete incompatibility here, seeing everything through the perspective of religion.

[Ali]

I imagine they said Secular Humanism as opposed to Christian Humanism. Perhaps non-religious Humanism would have been more appropriate. The 'atheism is a religion' claim also annoys me, but I'm not sure this is an instance of it.

[Anian]

Well you could argue then that zero is not a number, athesim is a definition of faith, although not religion per say (since it's not "an institution" it does not obide by any specific standards)... The abscence of God and institution to interpret God or similar forms of belief systems and instituions I still consider a part of the world of religion.

Lately, I'm more prone to saying I'm agnostic than an atheist, leaves some breathing room.  Main stream organized religions still seem pretentious and kind of uneeded, and my moral compass might not be divine, but I still think I do the right thing when it matters and I have guilt of my own. The idea of somebody acting as a middleman between a person and the divine, and usually profiting from it, just sounds wrong even when I say it, let alone stop to think about it. I'm mostly talking about catholicisim here, since this is what I'm most exposed to in my country.

On the other hand a lot of far eastern religions/life philosophies like budhism and similar are very tempting and if more people were like that, world would be a better place to live in, not something you could say about christians, muslims etc. Just my 2 cents for the flame war.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Well you could argue then that zero is not a number, athesim is a definition of faith

I stopped reading there.
Atheism may be anything you want, but not a religion.
Also, in your (flawed) comparison, atheism wouldn't be zero, but the empty set ;-P

The 'atheism is a religion' claim also annoys me, but I'm not sure this is an instance of it.

You're right. To be more accurate, I didn't say it was an instance of it. I just meant it's the same kind of confusion.

I imagine they said Secular Humanism as opposed to Christian Humanism. Perhaps non-religious Humanism would have been more appropriate.

Yes, "non-religious humanism" would have been more appropriate. Even more appropriate would have been "non-religious" (full stop) => Indeed, since the question is "which of these religions is yours?" there should be an answer "none" (as opposed to some weird fancy answer that mixes unrelated different things as I described in my first post).

[Anian]

I stopped reading there.
Atheism may be anything you want, but not a religion.
Also, in your (flawed) comparison, atheism wouldn't be zero, but the empty set ;-P

Fair enough, but why is it a flawed comparison?

[Igor Hardy]

No quiz of this type is perfect and this one is even less perfect than some others.

However, what I find interesting is that this quiz puts the beliefs about the existence of some kind of supernatural, the genesis of the world, about what happens after death, morality, human psychology and how society should be organized all in one package (so to speak), whereas these issues are clearly connected only for people who believe in a personal, all-unifying God/wayshower, or for extreme materialists who don't believe in any other "connections" than purely mechanical ones.

So for more varied and less absolute beliefs this test gives interesting results, but doesn't represent any real connection of your beliefs to some of the most popular religions. It's more of a "What kind of flower you are?" test in those cases.

[Buckethead]

My results are pretty mixed I think:


1.    Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.    Theravada Buddhism (95%)
3.    Secular Humanism (93%)
4.    Mahayana Buddhism (92%)
5.    Neo-Pagan (90%)
6.    Liberal Quakers (89%)
7.    New Age (85%)
8.    Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (78%)
9.    Jainism (75%)
10.    Reform Judaism (69%)
11.    Taoism (64%)
12.    Scientology (58%)
13.    Sikhism (57%)
14.    Nontheist (56%)
15.    New Thought (55%)
16.    Hinduism (54%)
17.    Orthodox Quaker (52%)
18.    Baha'i Faith (46%)
19.    Orthodox Judaism (46%)
20.    Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (40%)
21.    Islam (38%)
22.    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (36%)
23.    Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (36%)
24.    Seventh Day Adventist (31%)
25.    Eastern Orthodox (28%)
26.    Roman Catholic (28%)
27.    Jehovah's Witness (24%)

[Stupot]

Whoever designed the quiz has a twisted idea of what the word 'percent' means.

[cat]

It's more of a "What kind of flower you are?" test in those cases.

http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/flower-quiz

You Are a Snapdragon
"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

[TomatoesInTheHead]

Whoever designed the quiz has a twisted idea of what the word 'percent' means.

Well, it's not a "how can we divide your person in these religions"-percentage (which would be inappropriate since many religions overlap), but a "how much of each of these religions is in you"-percentage, so I don't see a problem with that in particular.

EDIT: flower-quiz:
"You Are a Canna - You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."
I've accomplished being a Canna! Am I good or what!? 8)

Also, in the belief quiz I'm the typical dirty atheist with Secular Humanism on top and probably Jehovah's Wittnesses at the bottom.

[Monsieur OUXX]

I stopped reading there.
Atheism may be anything you want, but not a religion.
Also, in your (flawed) comparison, atheism wouldn't be zero, but the empty set ;-P

Fair enough, but why is it a flawed comparison?

Ascovel gave a good conclusion of the debate So I don't want to go into a argument, I'm just answering by courtesy. It's flawed for the reason I mentionned (it wouldn't be zero but the empty set, that is, the absence of religion is not a religion in itself).

[Atelier]

Holy smokes I'm a Canada Thistle!

"You are a mean spirited, ornery cuss. People try to get rid of you and you just keep coming back."

[Wyz]

...

Ascovel gave a good conclusion of the debate So I don't want to go into a argument, I'm just answering by courtesy. It's flawed for the reason I mentionned (it wouldn't be zero but the empty set, that is, the absence of religion is not a religion in itself).

Yes, I also strongly believe that   

[Stee]

Your Results

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

How did the Belief-O-Matic do? Discuss your results on our message boards.

1.    Secular Humanism (100%)
2.    Unitarian Universalism (98%)
3.    Nontheist (80%)
4.    Liberal Quakers (73%)
5.    Theravada Buddhism (73%)
6.    Neo-Pagan (65%)
7.    Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (63%)
8.    Reform Judaism (54%)
9.    Taoism (50%)
10.    Sikhism (49%)
11.    New Age (46%)
12.    Scientology (40%)
13.    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)
14.    New Thought (38%)
15.    Orthodox Quaker (38%)
16.    Mahayana Buddhism (37%)
17.    Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (34%)
18.    Baha'i Faith (30%)
19.    Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
20.    Orthodox Judaism (29%)
21.    Eastern Orthodox (27%)
22.    Islam (27%)
23.    Roman Catholic (27%)
24.    Hinduism (26%)
25.    Seventh Day Adventist (26%)
26.    Jainism (23%)
27.    Jehovah's Witness (15%)

I seem to be included in the dirty atheist package. I would however like to state that I am a passive-agressive  anti-theist.

All religion is wrong. You shall only worship me. 

[Khris]

1.    Nontheist (100%)
2.    Secular Humanism (100%)
3.    Unitarian Universalism (89%)
4.    Theravada Buddhism (72%)
5.    Liberal Quakers (50%)
6.    Neo-Pagan (28%)
7.    Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (24%)
8.    Taoism (18%)
9.    New Age (6%)
10.    Baha'i Faith (0%)
11.    Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (0%)
12.    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (0%)
13.    Eastern Orthodox (0%)
14.    Hinduism (0%)
15.    Islam (0%)
16.    Jainism (0%)
17.    Jehovah's Witness (0%)
18.    Mahayana Buddhism (0%)
19.    Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (0%)
20.    New Thought (0%)
21.    Orthodox Judaism (0%)
22.    Orthodox Quaker (0%)
23.    Reform Judaism (0%)
24.    Roman Catholic (0%)
25.    Scientology (0%)
26.    Seventh Day Adventist (0%)
27.    Sikhism (0%)

This quiz is of course severely flawed; I deliberately chose "Not Applicable" even when I could have chosen e.g. "Agree" or "Disagree" and still get 24% Liberal Protestant.

If I had to design this I'd scratch a religion completely off the list as soon as the participant doesn't agree or believe with/in one facet/tenet.

In most cases this would probably result in emptiness, in which case my analysis would be "You either have no idea about your alleged faith or don't agree with it, time to ditch it, don't you think?"

[Ponch]

I've quite unexpectedly found out that I'm Echinacea. "You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you."

I expected to be either a tumbleweed or poison oak. How pleasant to find that this old world is still full of surprises.

[Babar]

Wow Khris...how did you manage that?

I chose the most atheistic of responses I could think of, and I still go nowhere the number of 0%s you did.

I think you are understanding this quiz the wrong way, actually. I mean we all (I hope) know what we believe. We won't be expecting something else to show up at the top, although it's funny when it does. The remainder are the interesting ones, showing how far we agree with tenets and viewpoints of other religions we wouldn't have thought outselves connected with. For example, I'm certainly not a jew in the tradtional sense (and only a "Reformed Jew" if you REALLY stretch the meaning of reformed ).

EDIT:
Actually, if I Not Applicabled EVERYTHING, I got the following percentages, with 0% for everything else:
1.    Nontheist (100%)
2.    Secular Humanism (100%)
3.    Unitarian Universalism (61%)
4.    Liberal Quakers (38%)
5.    Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (33%)
6.    Neo-Pagan (19%)


So I guess they're really taking a liberal interpretation of Liberal Christian

[Khris]

For the first two questions I increased the importance but later on didn't any longer. I guess it slightly skewed the percentages.
I was sort of joking, I do understand what the quiz is about. It's still very flawed though.

[BrutalSlakt]

1.    Secular Humanism (100%)
2.    Unitarian Universalism (100%)
3.    Nontheist (81%)
4.    Liberal Quakers (78%)
5.    Theravada Buddhism (72%)
6.    Neo-Pagan (68%)
7.    Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (62%)
8.    Taoism (51%)
9.    New Age (49%)
10.    Reform Judaism (45%)
11.    Mahayana Buddhism (38%)
12.    Baha'i Faith (33%)
13.    Orthodox Quaker (33%)
14.    Sikhism (27%)
15.    New Thought (25%)
16.    Scientology (23%)
17.    Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (21%)
18.    Jainism (19%)
19.    Orthodox Judaism (19%)
20.    Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (16%)
21.    Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (15%)
22.    Seventh Day Adventist (15%)
23.    Eastern Orthodox (12%)
24.    Islam (12%)
25.    Roman Catholic (12%)
26.    Hinduism (9%)
27.    Jehovah's Witness (0%)