I read a blog post at http://www.howisbradley.com/ that refers to a website called Belief-O-Matic which asks questions about one’s religious views and then provides approximately 25 religions with a percentage reflecting how similar your own personal beliefs are with those specific religions.

I was brought up as a Christian in a non-denominational church that strictly teaches from the bible. I still believe in most aspects of the religion but have learned to question things that don’t make sense and not blindly follow anything. At one point in my college career at George Mason University , I thought I wanted to become a veterinarian and started to take biology classes. It is hard to be surrounded by science and accepting of its findings as well as believing and following the teachings of Christianity. For example, one question in the Belief-O-Matic test asks,

” What are the origins of the physical universe and life on earth?”

A. As in the book of Genesis, God created a mature universe and mature life forms from nothing in less than 7 days, less than 10,000 years ago.

B. As in the book of Genesis, but ‘day’ is not 24 hours, possibly refers to thousands (or even millions) of years, or to creation phases.

C. God is creating and controlling the phenomena uncovered by scientists. Or there are other spiritual explanations, but not in conflict with scientific discovery.

D. All matter and life forms are manifestations (or illusions) of the eternal Absolute (Ultimate Truth, Universal Soul or Mind, etc.).

E. Only natural forces (like evolution) and no Creator or spiritual forces. Or not sure. Or not important.

F. None of the above.

I found this question particularly hard to answer and was faced with a hard choice. The Christian in me knows that the right answer is A or B but the “scientist” in me is not so accepting of those choices. I truly believe that C is the answer but I cannot help feeling troubled about that belief because it goes against what I was brought up learning and believing.

(I am writing this while I take the test and am feeling rather overwhelmed with really deciphering what I truly believe in my heart from what I was taught growing up as a Christian. With that said, I want to clearly state that I do believe in God and that accepting him as your savior is imperative for gaining access to heaven but I also believe that the bible was written by man, inspired, yes, but human nonetheless. Christian belief acknowledges the unavoidable sinful and imperfect nature of man so how can we be expected to blindly believe and follow everything in the bible that was written by man?)

My results:

1. Orthodox Quaker (100%)

2. Reform Judaism (98%)

3. Liberal Quakers (93%)

4. Baha’i Faith (92%)

5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (88%)

Well I never thought I would have views similar to Quakers but after reading the description I do. This is a really fun and interesting test so check it out and post your results. It will be exciting to see different reactions to it!