"Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic knows."

Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

Not so long ago, I entrusted the determination of my religious beliefs on a short, 20 question online quiz. I figured, I'm more a Catholic in name rather than in practice, let's see what religious category the gods of the interweb can generalize me into. And generalize they did:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (95%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (85%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (84%)
5. Neo-Pagan (80%)
6. Secular Humanism (80%)
7. Mahayana Buddhism (74%)
8. New Age (70%)
9. Reform Judaism (67%)
10. Orthodox Quaker (67%)
11. Taoism (63%)
12. Sikhism (59%)
13. Hinduism (53%)
14. Nontheist (52%)
15. Baha'i Faith (50%)
16. Jainism (50%)
17. New Thought (48%)
18. Seventh Day Adventist (42%)
19. Orthodox Judaism (39%)
20. Scientology (38%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (37%)
22. Eastern Orthodox (36%)
23. Roman Catholic (36%)
24. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (33%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (28%)
26. Islam (23%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (11%)

Hm. So the quiz was right in showing that I'm definitely low on the scale of Catholic-ness that I could be. What I find more funny is that I'm more Hindu than I am Catholic, and even more surprising that I seem to be even more "Neo-Pagan" than either of those.

Makes sense. I'm no perfect Catholic-in-name. I avoid going to Church like the plague, I hardly ever pray, and I think the most religious people I know are kinda kooky. I wouldn't say I've come to these practices out of a shunning of the religion of my family that I was raised on though...it really stems more out of laziness. Plus, I've had my share of sacrilegious moments too:

not pictured: the box of wine I served the bread with

True Roman Catholic and Christian views require very socially conservative values that many people my age nowadays would find ridiculous. Divorce is forbidden, abortions are morally wrong and Gays are evil. Most people under 60 can't say they believe in all those tenets.

But...God requires it, right?

Some 5 years ago I was forced into a discussion (in a car ride...those sneaky bastards) about why I believed in what I believed with some gung-ho born again Christians. My general philosophy is that there are certain things I do and don't agree with in the Bible, so I choose what I believe in and practice according to my own preferences and accord. I was then questioned how I could still call myself a believe in God or in the Bible or in Catholicism when I refuse to believe certain parts of God's word. At the time, I was offended, but the guy had a good point. If we really do want to call ourselves Christian or Catholic, how can we still keep our own less-than-Conservative social values?

In all honesty, the sliver of God's and Jesus' teachings I still follow is the fact that I believe we should treat everyone with the same respect we would like to be treated with as well. Be good to others, especially those who are less fortunate, because everyone deserves to be treated with love and respect, gay, divorced, or in Massachusetts or Iowa, gay and divorced.

And in the end of it all, isn't that what really matters? The way we treat others throughout our lives, actual religious beliefs be damned?

So what this really comes down to is...Go Unitarian. We open-minded folks are very welcoming.

"he called me a Christian...that's the worst insult ever"
-KV