Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I believe.... in something

I consider myself Christian, and have attended a Christian church since I was about nine. I'm comfortable in my church home, but there are some foundational beliefs in the Christian faith that I can't help but question on occasion. In fact about the only thing I can say with certainty about my faith is that I believe there is some form of God.

Though spirituality is important to me, not being able to identify the specifics about my personal faith doesn't usually bother me. Every once in a while I get the feeling that maybe I'm not being truly honest with myself when I say I'm a Christian, but my church is a big part of my life and the church I belong to allows plenty of room for diverse understandings of faith, so I easily accept that this is where I best belong right now, even if it doesn't totally represent my personal beliefs.

Perhaps because I'm so uncertain about how to classify my own beliefs, I'm easily intrigued by other religions and other peoples faith journeys. After seeing a friend post her results to a quiz about religious beliefs, I decided to check out the quiz (http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Quizzes/BeliefOMatic.aspx).

The Belief-O-Matic quiz is supposed to tell you what religion you practice (or should practice). Naturally, I put my results below, but I was particularly intrigued by the first suggestion. I don't know much about Wicca and other Pagan beliefs, but the more I learn about them the more they seem to align with my own beliefs. I particularly like one Wiccan description I read of God and Goddess, which could have been my own description of God and the Holy Spirit (which for as long as I remember I've seen as distinctly female) put in writing.

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
3. Liberal Quakers (89%)
4. Reform Judaism (84%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (79%)
6. New Age (78%)
7. Jainism (75%)
8. Baha'i Faith (69%)
9. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (67%)
10. Sikhism (65%)
11. Theravada Buddhism (61%)
12. Secular Humanism (59%)
13. Taoism (58%)
14. Orthodox Judaism (55%)
15. Hinduism (55%)
16. New Thought (53%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (53%)
18. Islam (49%)
19. Scientology (48%)
20. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (34%)
21. Nontheist (34%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (28%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (27%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (25%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (19%)
26. Roman Catholic (19%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (13%)

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