Belief-o-matic

[carolinayellowdog]

Last edited Tue Feb 17, 2015, 03:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Beliefnet offers this 20-question quiz which yields scores for various belief systems, showing the extent to which your own beliefs coincide with them. I had taken it ten or more years ago, and remembered only that the UUs were my highest match at 100%. Having recently delved into research on Unitarian history, and started to visit a UU Fellowship, I took it again out of curiosity to see what the other matches were. Here are my results-- comments follow.

Unitarian Universalism Unitarian Universalism
You have Unitarian Universalism beliefs (100%)
Click on any religion below for more information on different beliefs and faiths.

Taoism(88%)
Liberal Quakerism(81%)
New Age(77%)
Church of Christ, Scientist(73%)
New Thought(73%)
Scientology(68%)
Jainism(65%)
Mahayana Buddhism(65%)
Neo-Paganism(65%)
Secular Humanism(62%)
Liberal Christian Protestantism(57%)
Reformed Judaism(52%)
Sikhism(50%)
Hinduism(49%)
Theravada Buddhism(49%)
Orthodox Quakerism(40%)
Bahá'í Faith(35%)
Atheism(35%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(23%)
Islam(21%)
Conservative Christian Protestant(19%)
Seventh-day Adventists(17%)
Orthodox Judaism(14%)
Roman Catholicism(12%)
Eastern Orthodox Christianity(12%)
Jehovah's Witnesses(12%)

Comment-- the wide gaps between Liberal and Orthodox Quakerism, Reform and Orthodox Judaism, Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, Liberal and Conservative Protestantism, definitely fit the attractions and repulsions I feel toward the more liberal and conservative ends of any faith tradition. But it seems unfair to categorize all Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians at the same extreme end of the liberal-conservative spectrum as Jehovah's Witnesses, which my scores seem to indicate the test algorithm does. In practice if not in theory, US Catholics are as liberal as Protestants if not more so, seems like.

[hrmjustin]

1. my results.

Last edited Tue Feb 17, 2015, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

Liberal Quakerism 100 percent
Your beliefs match closest with Liberal Quakerism!To find out more about what Liberal Quakers believe and how they practice their faith, visit our helpful guide to Liberal Quakerism.And afterwards, take our Politic-O-Matic quiz to see how your faith and beliefs influence your political views!

Unitarian Universalism(86%)
Liberal Christian Protestantism(72%)
Conservative Christian Protestant(66%)
Reformed Judaism(64%)
Orthodox Quakerism(63%)
Roman Catholicism(58%)
Neo-Paganism(58%)
Hinduism(56%)
Sikhism(54%)
Taoism(54%)
Secular Humanism(53%)
Seventh-day Adventists(52%)
Mahayana Buddhism(51%)
Theravada Buddhism(51%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(49%)
Eastern Orthodox Christianity(48%)
New Thought(44%)
New Age(40%)
Jainism(38%)
Orthodox Judaism(37%)
Jehovah's Witnesses(37%)
Scientology(36%)
Church of Christ, Scientist(32%)
Bahá'í Faith(31%)
Atheism(31%)
Islam(19%)

[rug]

2. Mine.

Liberal Quakerism
100 percent


Your beliefs match closest with Liberal Quakerism!

To find out more about what Liberal Quakers believe and how they practice their faith, visit our helpful guide to Liberal Quakerism.

And afterwards, take our Politic-O-Matic quiz to see how your faith and beliefs influence your political views!


religious icon
68%

Seventh-day Adventists
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34%

Bahá'í Faith

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79%

Roman Catholicism
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40%

Church of Christ, Scientist

religious icon
64%

Conservative Christian Protestant
religious icon
77%

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

religious icon
53%

Hinduism
religious icon
26%

Islam

religious icon
42%

Jainism
religious icon
84%

Liberal Christian Protestantism

religious icon
39%

Mahayana Buddhism
religious icon
49%

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

religious icon
50%

Neo-Paganism
religious icon
41%

New Age

religious icon
41%

New Thought
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18%

Atheism

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20%

Orthodox Judaism
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97%

Orthodox Quakerism

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50%

Reformed Judaism
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41%

Scientology

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42%

Secular Humanism
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38%

Sikhism

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45%

Taoism
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40%

Theravada Buddhism

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78%

Unitarian Universalism
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42%

Jehovah's Witnesses

[hrmjustin]

4. Lol we are similiar.

I always did like the Quakers.

[rug]

6. I checked low importance for a lot of the answers.

[hrmjustin]

8. i hit a few high buttons.

[hrmjustin]

15. I republished my results in order now.

[cbayer]

10. Orthodox Jew - 97%?

[rug]

12. Lol, I didn't notice that.

But, I am circumcised!

[cbayer]

13. I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole.

[cbayer]

3. Just to let you know, your link goes to a results page.

Here is the link for the quiz page:
http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx

Be back shortly with my results.

[carolinayellowdog]

11. thanks, fixed the OP-- that other linked page was apparently a sample of results

because they weren't mine

[cbayer]

14. Thanks for posting this. It was fun.

I have difficulty finding the label I am most comfortable with, but I like this one pretty well.

[TM99]

5. Interesting & not surprised by the results.

My results are:

100% Secular Humanism

Unitary Universalism(88%)
Atheism(79%)
Liberal Quakerism(68%)
Theravada Buddhism(53%)
Liberal Christian Protestantism(50%)
Taoism(40%)
Orthodox Quakerism(38%)
Neo-Paganism(35%)
New Age(34%)
Reformed Judaism(34%)
Mahayana Buddhism(29%)
Scientology(25%)
Jainism(25%)
New Thought(21%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(21%)
Conservative Christian Protestant(20%)
Church of Christ, Scientist(18%)
Bahá'í Faith(18%)
Islam(18%)
Sikhism(16%)
Seventh-day Adventists(16%)
Orthodox Judaism(7%)
Roman Catholicism(7%)
Eastern Orthodox Christianity(7%)
Jehovah's Witnesses(7%)
Hinduism(5%)

These results, as I said, don't surprise me. I am ignostic and very secular humanistic. I am not anti-religion or anti-theistic and actually enjoy many aspects of community, ritual, and interfaith dialog. I have meditated within the Buddhist tradition for almost 35 years now always preferring the older, more 'atheistic' Theravadan traditions. I have always been more socially liberal, and I am a traditionalist and conservative when it comes to economics. So the percentages acknowledge that as well.

I must admit to being a bit surprised by the high number for Liberal Quakerism. Being the son/grandson of alcoholic, I do not drink, true. After my experiences in the military, I have become very anti-war. I am quite curious now to study the tradition a bit more.

Thanks, this was enlightening.

[cbayer]

9. We are very similar. Atheism was the 4th highest for me.

[TM99]

18. I am not at all surprised.

[cbayer]

7. Secular Humanism - 100%

Liberal Quakerism & UU - 89%

[carolinayellowdog]

16. Liberal Quakerism is wonderful, but beleagured

since so many of us score high on that measure, a comment. I have a couple of centuries of Quaker ancestry and have always been drawn to that tradition. The Greensboro metro area has a higher concentration of Friends meetings than any other part of the US, I read somewhere, and it's not far away. But theologically and politically, the entire tradition has been moving rightwards for generations, embracing evangelical beliefs, hiring ministers, losing its distinctiveness. There is a small rural meeting I've attended once where some friends are members, and its very progressive. But they are now independent of all larger (yearly) meetings because the mainstream kept moving in a conservative direction. So I estimate that the conservative Friends outnumber the liberal ones 2-1.
Maybe PA is not like NC in this shift.

Re the test questions, I notice that a couple of you have high scores for secular humanism AND for atheism, whereas mine are quite different. Makes me wonder which questions feed into which categories; would speculate that pluralism and relativism are characteristics of secular humanists but not atheists.

[el_bryanto]

17. It was pretty accurate with me. nt

[kentauros]

19. I had to look up the definition of "New Thought"

and it seems to align with my ideas about things. I was a bit surprised at being a UU as the two times I've been to one locally, it was a Christian UU church, and still had rituals in it (I'm just not into that kind of thing any more.) My GF liked it though


My results:

Unitarian Universalism (100%)
Liberal Quakerism (87%)
Taoism (83%)
New Age (81%)
New Thought (78%)
Mahayana Buddhism (73%)
Neo-Paganism (73%)
Liberal Christian Protestantism (66%)
Theravada Buddhism (66%)
Reformed Judaism (64%)
Church of Christ, Scientist (63%)
Scientology (59%)
Secular Humanism (52%)
Jainism (49%)
Hinduism (47%)
Orthodox Quakerism (37%)
Sikhism (37%)
Conservative Christian Protestant (33%)
Bahá'í­ Faith (29%)
Atheism (29%)
Islam (23%)
Orthodox Judaism (22%)
Seventh-day Adventists (20%)
Roman Catholicism (17%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (17%)
Eastern Orthodox Christianity (13%)
Jehovah's Witnesses (11%)

[carolinayellowdog]

20. Very strong parallels between our profiles-- comment on UU versus New Thought

I think UUism has an unfair advantage here at DU in that it has always been highly politically engaged in a progressive direction. So the questions about progressive social issues have something to do with why you and I ended up with 100% UU matches and everyone else in this thread scored fairly high-- even if their religious beliefs per se are more aligned with another faith tradition.

New Thought consists of three main groups and many unaffiliated authors; and has influenced Protestantism through mainstream and Pentecostal channels. Unity, Religious Science, and Divine Science are all much more individualistic, less focused on social justice, than UUism or Liberal Quakerism. (Similar to their parent tradition Christian Science in that regard.)

All that positive thinking gospel of healthy-mindedness is just fine on an individual basis, encouraging people to take responsibility for their own fates. But when people start to apply the same logic to others' suffering it can be downright cruel and heartless. Mitch Horowitz wrote an excellent study of New Thought a couple of years ago called One Simple Idea. He pinpoints the problematic issue of the "no accidents" doctrine. It might be healthy and constructive to take everything bad that happens to oneself as an individual as a "growth opportunity" or a result of past misunderstandings that can be corrected. But it is very unhealthy and destructive to take the same approach to large-scale social justice issues, blaming poverty on its victims instead of looking at how the deck is stacked against them.

PS-- UUism seems to be the opposite of Quakerism in that the liberal and non-theistic faction has triumphed decisively overall, and I've never encountered anything Christian-focused that bothered me in any of the services in VA and NC I've attended. But further north AND south, one might encounter a stronger Christian element for different reasons. In NY/NJ/PA the Universalist Church was strong, and it was more explicitly Christian than the Unitarians whose base was more in New England. There is still some legacy of this current in the northeast. Sunbelt cities like Houston would more likely to have Christian-leaning UU groups due to the cultural atmosphere. Lots of liberal Christians have felt driven out of mainstream churches in the South due to the rise of rightwing extremism therein. And the UUA has grown as the mainstream Protestant denominations have shrunk. Here is a map of UU growth showing where it is expanding and contracting.

[kentauros]

21. The Unity church we visited

is strong on Christianity and New Age spiritualism, but not conservatism. Here's their site, and their page for Sunday services (that gives a better description of what we went to.)

I think I was expecting a full lack of any religion, and something more "homogenized" from all religions. What I'd read around here about people visiting UU churches was it seemed more pagan than anything remotely like Christianity.

I don't dislike Christianity. I was raised Episcopalian. I just found the rituals meaningless. Thinking through personal beliefs, maybe with some conversational guidance, is about all I want from religion of any kind. That's why the Internet is so wonderful in that aspect

[carolinayellowdog]

22. No wonder you were disappointed-- Unity Church is NOT Unitarian Universalism!

I was perplexed that anyone would find a UU church preaching Christianity as it is totally out of sync with my experience, but took you at your word. Figured maybe things are different in Texas-- as they are in so many other ways. However, we have here a case of mistaken identity. Unity School of Christianity, and its affiliated churches, are very specifically Christian, a Bible-centered version of New Thought and strongly focused on prayer. UU is not a bit like that. Welcomes atheists, agnostics, pagans, and followers of every religion. Check out this website that gives info on 8 different UU congregations in the Houston area. Here are the 7 principles of UUism from that site:

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: The inherent dignity and worth of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

For contrast, the Unity School of Christianity website offers this statement about "who we are":

The Unity movement was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889 as a healing ministry based on the power of prayer and the power of our thoughts to create our own reality. The Fillmores regarded Jesus as the great example rather than the great exception; interpreted the Bible metaphysically; and taught that God is present within all of us.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, but UUism is far more intellectually stimulating-- and for people who like prayer and the Bible, might seem spiritually impoverished compared to a Unity Church.

Nothing much ritualistic that I recall in the local UU in Winston-Salem except for some stuff with lighting a chalice at the beginning. I imagine there is some variation but nothing at all like what you'd find in a Unity church, certainly no focus on prayers for healing, prosperity, etc. Much more on the thinking end of the thinking/feeling continuum than anything New Thought.

[kentauros]

23. Thanks for the link :)

No wonder I was disappointed! Now I know. I doubt my GF will want to try a different place, though, as she did enjoy her experience at Unity. I may have to try the UUs on my own.