Scoring Religions

fschmidt said:

Since this is a place to discuss different religions, I would like to know how people here would score religions that they know on a scale of -10 to +10? A negative score means that you would prefer being isolated to joining that religious community, and a positive score means that you would prefer joining that religious community to being isolated. Here are my scores from lowest to highest:

Reform Judaism -10
Modern Protestantism -8
Atheism -7
Islam -5
Catholicism -2
Orthodox Judaism +1
Odinism (pagan) +2
Orthodox Christianity +3
Karaite Judaism +5

Please post how you would score the religions that you know.

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smaneck said:

I like Belief-O-Matic more:

Belief-O-Matic - Beliefnet.com

I come out 100% Baha'i and 99% Sikh and Reform Judaism. After that Quaker. I was a bit surprised that the liberal Protestantism in which I was raised came in a poor fifth.

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fschmidt said:

Since this is a place to discuss different religions, I would like to know how people here would score religions that they know on a scale of -10 to +10? A negative score means that you would prefer being isolated to joining that religious community, and a positive score means that you would prefer joining that religious community to being isolated. Here are my scores from lowest to highest:

Reform Judaism -10
Modern Protestantism -8
Atheism -7
Islam -5
Catholicism -2
Orthodox Judaism +1
Odinism (pagan) +2
Orthodox Christianity +3
Karaite Judaism +5

Please post how you would score the religions that you know.

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Jane_the_Bane said:

To insist that this fragmented construct survives death strikes me as positively preposterous. As far as I am concerned, we already ARE a part of Ultimate Reality, and our sense of separation primarily serves the purpose of reflection (quite literally).
In order to understand the universe and ourselves, we MUST stand apart (or at least believe that we do). We are the cosmos looking at itself in wonder.

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cloudyday2 said:

I don't know what to call this, but the most appealing religion is the one that Jane the Bane describes in this quote:


I like to think of the trees and rocks and animals as energized and working in their specialties towards some universal goal.

I also like what I've read about Taoism and Agnosticism.

Atheism is good, but I lose the sense of wonder about the world.

ALSO, it seems like not knowing is essential to our existence. Understanding and abstracting can help us notice patterns and details in the confusion, but ultimately we should step back and look at the big picture as a piece of art again.

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smaneck said:

I like Belief-O-Matic more:

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fschmidt said:

I like trying to understand other perspectives, so I am curious why an Eastern Orthodox Christian would rate Mormonism so much lower than other forms of Christianity.

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If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle. Keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to traditon, merely translated it from certain ancient and myteriously engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out of the way locality, the work of translating it was equally a miracle for the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosey detail of imaginary history with the Old Testament for a model followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint old fashioned sound and structure of our King James translation of the scriptures. The result is a mongrel, half modern glibness and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained, the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern, which was about every sentence or two, he ladeled in a few such scriptural phrases as, "exceeding sore," "and it came to pass," etc. and made things satisfactory again. "And it came to pass," was his pet. If he had left that out, his bible would have been only a pamphlet.
Mark Twain Meets the Mormons

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fschmidt said:

Since this is a place to discuss different religions, I would like to know how people here would score religions that they know on a scale of -10 to +10?

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LoveBeingAMuslimah said:

[anyreligion] = +10. Really, it's [anyreligion] or nothing. Not only would I want to be isolated rather than convert to anything else, I'd hope that Allaah would take my soul while I am a Muslim rather than dying in a state of disbelief.

I truly cannot convey how emaan (faith) in Islaam feels to me in suitable words. Ibn Taymiyyah said something about how if the strongest of the world knew what happiness the believers have, they would rush to take it from us for themselves with the tips of their swords. I think that's the closest I can come to describing how I feel.


As for giving a rating to other religions, I typed something up but I see this thread as somewhat of a "display your dislike for certain religions" thread and I don't want to partake in that portion. I think it's clear that my love, my life is Islaam and I'm not particularly attached to any other religion.

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fschmidt said:

I like trying to understand other perspectives, so I am curious why an Eastern Orthodox Christian would rate Mormonism so much lower than other forms of Christianity.

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Zoness said:

Edit/bold mine.

I can see this perspective especially for most people who are devout to their religion unwaveringly but I think that as both I have seen in real life conversation and on a slew of forums, many people are less sure or dedicated to their core religious doctrine and that's OK. Though I don't trust the OP based on his posting history and my personal experience, I do not see anything immediately wrong with such rankings, usually such biases have already came out in posts anyways, I think it just a more concrete way of showing where people stand.

Just my opinion.

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smaneck said:

My immediate reaction to the OP was, "Does one shop for religion the same way one picks out socks at Walmart?"

One embraces a religion because they believe it is true, not because it meets their personal preferences.

I posted the bit about Belief-O-Matic because I find it fun, not because I think it is any way to pick a religion. What it really uncovers is what you already believe.

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Eudaimonist said:

Considering that I am already isolated and don't mind, I'll give -10 to all religions. Atheism isn't a religion, so that doesn't count.

There are groups that are connected in some way with an godless worldview. I'd count the Fellowship of Reason as +10, and other groups I'd have to judge carefully for worldview, attitudes, focus, activities, etc.


eudaimonia,

Mark

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