Belief - o - Matic quiz Response

Reform Judaism:

Reform Jews are by no stretch of the imagination fundamental Jews. They incorporate many modern ideas into their religion. They are also very lenient about their views. They accept other reform Jews who believe in differing ideals, one of the most popular differences being belief in a Deity. The majority of reform Jews believe that the book of Genesis should be read symbolically as opposed to literally. They adhere to their religion while still incorporating modern sciences, technologies, and discoveries. As they are a very relaxed group, there is no official position concerning the afterlife. Reform Jews may choose to believe what they wish. In their religion, there is no satin, solely selfish desires as a side effect of free will. Salvation comes from occasional worship of God and from conducting ones self in a fashion that does no harm to others and is healthy for the individual, society, and the earth. There is no hell for those who do not lead a good life as God is always forgiving. The extent to which followers adhere to the Jewish laws is their choice.

My reaction:

When I first saw that my closest Eastern religion was reform judaism, I was slightly taken aback. Once again, I had always had a stereotype of the Jewish religion, and knew little to nothing about it. I never thought that Judaism would conform to my beliefs the way it does. I suspected that I would match a religion that is very lenient about their laws/beliefs. Reform Judaism does seem to fit my views for the most part. I do not adhere to strict laws, nor do I want to be forced to believe one specific thing. I have always found faults in religion where it meets science, however, reform Judaism seems to accept science and even incorporate it very well. I also never liked to take religious texts literally. I always found them interesting and helpful, even guiding at times, but never did I think it right to take them literally. I have always preferred to learn lessons that I can apply to my everyday life, without having to change my way of life for a religion. I revere the earth, and believe that it is important to have moral standards in ones life, sometimes set by religion. For those reasons, I find reform Judaism a good match.

Belief - o - Matic quiz

1.	Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.	Liberal Quakers (94%)
3.	Neo-Pagan (92%)
4.	New Age (82%)
5.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (80%)
6.	Reform Judaism (79%)
7.	Mahayana Buddhism (76%)
8.	Baha'i Faith (76%)
9.	Scientology (68%)
10.	Islam (66%)
11.	Orthodox Judaism (66%)
12.	Jainism (65%)
13.	Secular Humanism (65%)
14.	Theravada Buddhism (65%)
15.	Orthodox Quaker (63%)
16.	New Thought (60%)
17.	Hinduism (60%)
18.	Sikhism (57%)
19.	Taoism (54%)
20.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (47%)
21.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (46%)
22.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (46%)
23.	Seventh Day Adventist (45%)
24.	Eastern Orthodox (43%)
25.	Roman Catholic (43%)
26.	Nontheist (41%)
27.	Jehovah's Witness (27%)

Blog-o-signment #2

You scored 56, on a scale of 25 to 100. Here's how to interpret your score:
25 - 29		Hardcore Skeptic -- but interested or you wouldn't be here!
30 - 39		Spiritual Dabbler -- Open to spiritual matters but far from impressed
40 - 49		Active Spiritual Seeker � Spiritual but turned off by organized religion
50 - 59		Spiritual Straddler � One foot in traditional religion, one foot in free-form spirituality
60 - 69		Old-fashioned Seeker -- Happy with my religion but searching for the right expression of it
70 - 79		Questioning Believer � You have doubts about the particulars but not the Big Stuff
80 - 89		Confident Believer � You have little doubt you�ve found the right path
90 - 100		Candidate for Clergy

Preconceived Notions

To me, it is very obvious that in general, the public is very poorly educated about Middle-Eastern and Asian history. Clearly, I am one of the many who is lacking any real knowledge concerning Asia whatsoever. For some reason however, I never really felt that my knowledge of Asia was lacking or that I couldn't talk about Asia. I believe that this is due primarily to the fact that I believed everything I heard about Asia. It is clear to me now that throughout my life, I have developed a stereotype or a preconceived notion about what Asia is like, and what Asia's history is like. I simply assumed that Asian history didn't really pertain to the rest of the world and that all of Asia was generally bland and basically a giant mass of land filled with a colossal amount of people, pollution, and sweatshops. I understand that this might be a bit overly-frank but truly, this is what came to mind when I thought of Asia. In my opinion, this is due to primarily a lack of interest in Asia from the American People. I now find it odd that hardly ever did I hold a conversation about Asian history, or Asia in general; and if I did, it was filled with rough stereotypes.

However, I have recently realized how important it is that we learn Asian history and culture. It is painfully clear that Asia, and specifically China is now the Superpower of the world. No longer does the world revolve around the United States, and for this reason we must adapt and learn in order to progress. I believe that learning about Asian history and culture will add a whole new and valuable perspective to life for me. I will be able to look at things in a different way, and to be able to tap into that knowledge at any time is an invaluable resource.