# Belief-O-Matic **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 29, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076 "2002-09-29T05:39:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/1 "2002-09-29T05:39:30Z")
Has anyone else tried the Belief-O-Matic, found at [Beliefnet](http://beliefnet.com)? You answer 20 questions concerning your spiritual belief, and rate the importance of each question. You then receive a listing how well you match with various religions. It’s an interesting quiz, and includes a thoughtful warning that they take no legal responsibility for the fate of your soul. My top 5: 1. Unitarian Universalist 2. Liberal Quakers 3. Neopagan 4. Mahayana Buddhism 5. Hinduism ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/2 "2002-09-29T06:10:03Z")
I try it every 3-6 months. Generally I end up Liberal Protestant, then Conservative Protestant, and the next few vary. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/3 "2002-09-29T06:19:50Z")
Okay, I forgot to actually take it again, so I did, and the typical results were: 1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%) 2. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (86%) 3. Bahá’í Faith (83%) 4. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (80%) 5. Liberal Quakers (74%) Hmm, I’m a bit surprised by the high showings of Bahá’í and LDS, but the other three were pretty predictable. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/4 "2002-09-29T07:21:04Z")
still trying to grasp their meaning with “Christian Protestants” - aren’t capital-P Protestants _always_ Christian? It is, however, interesting that an atheist (me) comes up as “Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants” as 100% - guess a believe in God is not required for those folks… 🙂 and: Eastern Orthodox Hinduism Islam Orthodox Judaism Roman Catholic all came up at 26% - ummmm, don’t think so (or I am HORRIBLY conflicted!) ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/5 "2002-09-29T07:53:24Z")
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Liberal Quakers (98%) 3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (98%) 4. Neo-Pagan (88%) 5. Secular Humanism (84%) Hmmm. Maybe I should quit telling folk I’m non-Christian, in favour of getting cards printed with all the above on, saying, “Here! I _might_ be any or all of these!” No? Oh, well. Back to th’ ol’ drawing board, then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/6 "2002-09-29T10:03:02Z")
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (97%) 3. Liberal Quakers (93%) 4. Neo-Pagan (87%) 5. New Age (85%) I’m a hippy? I’d best go and beat myself up. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kitarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kitarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitarak)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/7 "2002-09-29T11:41:22Z")
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Secular Humanism (98%) 3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (88%) 4. Liberal Quakers (85%) 5. Nontheist (85%) Eh? Christian? How does that fit with my repeatedly saying “God does not exist.”? (or not sure. Or unimportant.) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/8 "2002-09-29T11:52:49Z")
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Liberal Quakers (94%) 3. Jainism (91%) 4. Mahayana Buddhism (84%) 5. Hinduism (83%) Isnt’ “Liberal Quaker” an oxymoron? Aside from Hinduism and Jainism, I have no idea what the other religions mean…guess I should do some research, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/9 "2002-09-29T12:01:02Z")
I usually score pretty close to where I am. The results this time: 1. Eastern Orthodox (100%) 2. Roman Catholic (100%) 3. Mainline to conservative Christian/Protestant (95%) 4. Seventh Day Adventist (85%) 5. Orthodox Quaker (81%) I’m Catholic, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/10 "2002-09-29T13:34:38Z")
1. Secular Humanism (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (99%) 3. Liberal Quakers (87%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%) 5. Nontheist (71%) Well **kitarak**. Looks like we score pretty similarly. Although I probably should lose some points for even taking that quiz. Interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/11 "2002-09-29T14:25:54Z")
I tried the test, deliberately answering all questions with a non-religious answer (no god, no afterlife, etc.) and set all priorities the same to give them equal weight. The results came back similar to others: [ol][li]Unitarian Universalism (100%) [/li][li]Secular Humanism (99%) [/li][li]Nontheist (84%) [/li][li]Liberal Quakers (80%), etc.[/ol][/li]#2 & 3 would make sense. But either Unitarians & Quakers don’t believe in god, the devil, heaven, hell, the afterlife, etc., or this test is pretty bogus. And I wonder what **Osiris** answered differently than I did to get Secular Humanism on top! ---
**Author:** ![Anubis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Anubis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anubis)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/12 "2002-09-29T14:32:30Z")
1. Secular Humanism (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (96%) 3. Liberal Quakers (93%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%) 5. Neo-Pagan (77%) Hmm. I’m closer to you than **kitarak** is, **Osiris**. I wonder why… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/13 "2002-09-29T14:35:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Musicat \* > #2 & 3 would make sense. But either Unitarians & Quakers don’t believe in god, the devil, heaven, hell, the afterlife, etc., or this test is pretty bogus. I don’t know about Quakers, but from my admittedly limited understanding of it, no, Unitarians don’t have to believe in any of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/14 "2002-09-29T14:48:32Z")
My top 5: Unitarian Universalism (100%) Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (85%) Liberal Quakers (84%) Secular Humanism (81%) Nontheist (76%) ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/15 "2002-09-29T15:21:22Z")
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Secular Humanism (98%) 3. Liberal Quakers (87%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (82%) 5. Nontheist (72%) I’m surprised unitarian universalism and secular humanism aren’t switched. ---
**Author:** ![Skerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Skerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skerri)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/16 "2002-09-29T16:26:57Z")
1. Liberal Quakers (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 3. Neo-Pagan (98%) 4. Reform Judaism (95%) 5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (91%) The only ones that concern me are: 15. Scientology (57%) 21. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (41%) but I guess they show up low enough on my list. Whew! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Xan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ac8455/32.png) [@Xan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/17 "2002-09-29T17:01:00Z")
My Top 5 1. Unitarian Universalism (100%) 2. Secular Humanism (98%) 3. Liberal Quakers (90%) 4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (86%) 5. Theravada Buddhism (74%) I dunno how I got Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (86%) seeing as how I answered every question nonreligiously. ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2002, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/18 "2002-09-29T17:48:12Z")
My Top 5: 1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%) 2. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (89%) 3. Orthodox Quaker (89%) 4. Seventh Day Adventist (74%) 5. Liberal Quakers (74%) I guess I’m one of the three non-Unitarians on this board… Oh, and this test was spot-on. I’m Lutheran! ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/19 "2002-09-30T02:53:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anubis \* > \*\*Hmm. I’m closer to you than **kitarak** is, **Osiris**. I wonder why… \*\* Because Anubis. I … am your father. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076/20 "2002-09-30T02:58:54Z")
Hmm. Let’s see… 1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%) 2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (90%) 3. Eastern Orthodox (88%) 4. Roman Catholic (88%) That’s very interesting. I’m Anglo-Catholic, and not Protestant at all. How odd. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/belief-o-matic/130076.md?page=2)