Saturday, May 02, 2009

Believe It Or Not

Actually, I grew up not actually having a fixed religion. I particularly find it annoying when I am required to fill out section on forms which inquiring about my faith. What is the correlation between faith and my insurance premium? On paper, I put down "Buddhism" but my family as well as myself never visit temples. In principle, my parents never ask us to follow the same faith as they practise. I remembered at some point during my teenage years, my family "migrated" to Mahayana Buddhism for a while. My mother followed Catholic faith when she was young because my Dusun-Kadazan maternal grandmother was a dedicated Catholic. But I know my mother believes more now in respect for each other's faith. She and many of her siblings are now following Theravada Buddhism. I don't think my father follows any faith, but he believes in Karma and respect for ancestors. We put flowers and light candles at the altar (viz. first and fifteenth day of lunar month) to show respect.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my faith. Just for fun, guess what Belief-O-Matic says about my faith: 

Belief-O-Matic lists 27 faiths in order of how much we have in common with our professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with our thinking. How did the Belief-O-Matic do? 

1. Jainism (100%)
2. Theravada Buddhism (94%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (90%)
4. Orthodox Quaker (90%)
5. Neo-Pagan (87%)
6. New Age (82%)
7. Unitarian Universalism (79%)
8. Hinduism (76%)
9. Liberal Quakers (75%)
10. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (65%)
11. Seventh Day Adventist (63%)
12. Taoism (63%)
13. Baha'i Faith (61%)
14. Secular Humanism (60%)
15. Sikhism (60%)
16. Orthodox Judaism (55%)
17. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (50%)
18. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
19. Eastern Orthodox (46%)
20. Roman Catholic (46%)
21. Islam (45%)
22. Jehovah's Witness (43%)
23. Reform Judaism (41%)
24. Nontheist (40%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
26. New Thought (31%)
27. Scientology (24%)

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