My changing beliefs

[Floating Pants]

Before you start guessing my religion, let me say that I don't like to put a tag on myself. I'm not an agnostic, I just want to look at all religions from a universal, non biased level. Each religion deserves its own respect individually, but that doesn't mean that we should all call them the same thing. Religion is more about how you worship, not who. God is one, a figure of many forms and shapes. My personal beliefs and philosophy of morality mainly comes from my Christian background, so, if a stranger asked me my faith, I'd tell them I am a Christian. I mostly read the Bible, so I value the Ten Commandments the highest of all moral codes, followed the Seven Deadly Sins, one of the few things of the Catholic Church I put much value to.

Without further ado...



Reform Judaism (100%)
Orthodox Judaism (99%)
Baha'i Faith (95%)
Jainism (93%)
Islam (92%)
Hinduism (89%)
Sikhism (88%)
Unitarian Universalism (81%)
Liberal Quakers (81%)
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)
Mahayana Buddhism (72%)
Jehovah's Witness (68%)
New Thought (65%)
Scientology (60%)
Theravada Buddhism (57%)
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (57%)
Neo-Pagan (56%)
Orthodox Quaker (53%)
New Age (50%)
Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (50%)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
Eastern Orthodox (44%)
Roman Catholic (44%)
Taoism (34%)
Secular Humanism (34%)
Seventh Day Adventist (31%)
Nontheist (22%)


Judaism... Interesting... I've never understood why all the Abrahamic religions are always fighting each other, so I've kind of valued Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to all be the same. I've also never been quite in touch with the "I love Jesus" thing, and valuing him over the other prophets, I consider the word of Muhammad and Gautama to be just as valuable, if not more. Hence, I'm sort of a modern Jew, I just respect all knowledge and all philosophies and all prophets equally. We shouldn't isolate our beliefs to the word of a single book. If God is one, then why should we look down upon the "other" gods?

But I have no Jewish heritage or faith in my family whatsoever. It's really odd how that would come up. Maybe it's my idea to place the old scripture at higher value than the new, or simply my ideal that life in the past was always more significant than what we live now...

Baha'i Faith, never heard of it before this, but it seems pretty interesting after reading about it. It's... small, though. But it seems to fit me perfectly! It takes the value of Buddhism, Islam, and other Abrahamic beliefs, and places it together. I like it, a lot.

Not entirely sure what Sikhism is doing up there, and I don't have a clue about the polytheistic religions like Hinduism or Jainism. I'm putting those aside for now.

Islam surprisingly scored higher than any form of Christianity. I've always kind of disliked conservative Christianity, and especially Roman Catholicism. I respect Islam deeply, and their point of view is also very significant. So, when you look at it, it wouldn't be entirely a surprise for Islam to be a very good religion for me.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Not entirely sure what Sikhism is doing up there, and I don't have a clue about the polytheistic religions like Hinduism or Jainism. I'm putting those aside for now.

I am not sure that you are corect about hinduism when you say its polytheistic. I am no expert but there is a central being(Ishwara) with different manifestations(Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) and there are of course plenty of cosmic gods who represent what in christianity would be caled a seraphins I guess.
Jainism is in fact a sort of atheistic religion (no mention of God at all)

 

[Linkman226]

Not strictly true; several Jains in history have gone to admirable lengths to criticize the concept of god:

Some foolish men declare that creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before the creation? If you say he was transcendent then and needed no support, where is he now? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say that he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression. If you declare that this raw material arose naturally you fall into another fallacy, For the whole universe might thus have been its own creator, and have arisen quite naturally. If God created the world by an act of his own will, without any raw material, then it is just his will and nothing else — and who will believe this silly nonsense? If he is ever perfect and complete, how could the will to create have arisen in him? If, on the other hand, he is not perfect, he could no more create the universe than a potter could. If he is form-less, action-less and all-embracing, how could he have created the world? Such a soul, devoid of all morality, would have no desire to create anything. If he is perfect, he does not strive for the three aims of man, so what advantage would he gain by creating the universe? If you say that he created to no purpose because it was his nature to do so, then God is pointless. If he created in some kind of sport, it was the sport of a foolish child, leading to trouble. If he created because of the karma of embodied beings [acquired in a previous creation] He is not the Almighty Lord, but subordinate to something else. If out of love for living beings and need of them he made the world, why did he not take creation wholly blissful free from misfortune? If he were transcendent he would not create, for he would be free: Nor if involved in transmigration, for then he would not be almighty. Thus the doctrine that the world was created by God makes no sense at all, And God commits great sin in slaying the children whom he himself created. If you say that he slays only to destroy evil beings, why did he create such beings in the first place? Good men should combat the believer in divine creation, maddened by an evil doctrine. Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning or end, and is based on the principles, life and rest. Uncreated and indestructible, it endures under the compulsion of its own nature.

From the Mahāpurāna, as translated in Primal Myths (1979) by Barbara Sproul

 

[Ai Shizuka]

First time I see one of these tests actually getting it 100% right.



1. Nontheist (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (98%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (95%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (73%)
5. Liberal Quakers (71%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (64%)
7. Neo-Pagan (56%)
8. Reform Judaism (49%)
9. Taoism (46%)
10. New Age (42%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (37%)
12. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (37%)
13. New Thought (34%)
14. Scientology (34%)
15. Baha'i Faith (32%)
16. Islam (32%)
17. Orthodox Judaism (32%)
18. Orthodox Quaker (31%)
19. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (27%)
20. Jainism (26%)
21. Sikhism (23%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (20%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (19%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
25. Roman Catholic (16%)
26. Hinduism (9%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (0%)