Belief-o-matic

I took an online personality test called the Belief-o-matic. According to the website, "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."


My results:
1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Seventh Day Adventist (94%)
3. Orthodox Quaker (86%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (82%)
5. Roman Catholic (82%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (76%)
7. Orthodox Judaism (63%)
8. Islam (61%)
9. Hinduism (52%)
10. Bahá'í Faith (49%)
11. Liberal Quakers (48%)
12. Sikhism (45%)
13. Reform Judaism (43%)
14. Unitarian Universalism (39%)
15. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)
16. Jainism (33%)
17. Nontheist (33%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (31%)
19. Mahayana Buddhism (30%)
20. Theravada Buddhism (30%)
21. Jehovah's Witness (28%)
22. New Thought (25%)
23. Scientology (23%)
24. New Age (19%)
25. Neo-Pagan (18%)
26. Taoism (17%)
27. Secular Humanism (15%)


Quizzes like this are always a little flawed, limited in part by the limitations of the author's understanding. For instance, the question about baptism asks if I thought it was important as an initiation ceremony. Well, I think it's important but to classify it as an initiation probably misses what the Bible actually teaches. So I modified my answer to allow for what I think the test would understand. I also didn't answer a question that didn't have a single acceptable answer but marked my non-answer as "very important" to me.

When all was said and done, I was intrigued by the results. The top answer (100%) matches what I am, a conservative Christian. The top five are high because of basic Christian doctrine, although I chuckled when I saw the Seventh Day Adventists. The top eight are there because of common stands on moral issues, while the bottom 7/10ths of the list is more about the differences – in theology, world views, and moral stands – with 50% or less in common with some of these mutually exclusive world views. I was not surprised that Secular Humanism was last on the list or that Scientology was so low, but I was confused how they managed to have anything in common (15% and 23% respectively).

I'd also be interested to know how some church folks would do on a test like this. Not because they would have unorthodox views but because I fear many would be ignorant of what orthodoxy is in the first place. And there's the rub: it doesn't really matter what we think about God or the meaning of life – what matters is the things that are actually true about God and believing those true things.

My preferences don't alter what is true or not.