[Buddha-l] Will this be on the final exam?

[Richard Hayes]

On Wed, 2008-12-24 at 10:51 -0500, Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> Like all tests the Beliefomatic has a very clear cultural bias. In fact, 
> the very idea that "religions" are correlated with "beliefs" is rooted 
> in European Christianity (which has always been obsessed with creeds and 
> "beliefs").

Except for Baptists, Quakers, Mennonites, Unitarians and Universalists,
all of which are adamantly non-credal (not to mention incredible). Well,
I guess being adamantly opposed to creeds is just another way of being
obsessed with creeds.

On the whole I agree that the emphasis on beliefs completely skews the
test. In my own case, the two sacred spaces in which I invariably feel
most completely comfortable and at home are Catholic churches, Sunni
mosques and Sephardi Jewish synagogues. I love going to those places
despite disagreeing wholeheartedly with the allegedly official beliefs
of the people who worship there.

> Christianity: 11 subcategories
> Unitarian, Liberal Quaker, Mainline to Liberal Protestant, Christian 
> Science, Jehovah's Witness, Mormonism, Orthodox Quaker, Eastern 
> Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Mainline to Conservative Protestant, Seventh 
> Day Adventist

Make that nine subcategories, since Unitarians are not considered
Christians by themselves or by most Christians, and liberal Quakers are
jokingly called ABC Quakers (Anything But Christian).

The deficiencies of the test are abundantly obvious and have been
discussed at some length before. To the credit of the BeliefNet folks,
it is classified as Entertainment. 

If anyone would like to know how to get 100% as both a Theravadin and a
Unitarian, the secret is to answer "Have no opinion" and check the "Of
little importance" boxes on everything having to do with God, the
afterlife, creeds, rituals, saviors, angels, demons and exorcists; say
that you very strongly favor same-sex marriage and a woman's right to
abortion; and claim that environmental issues are of more importance to
you than anything else and that you think people should be responsible.

The last time we discussed this test, everyone who took it reported
getting 99% or 100% in the Unitarian-Universalist category, which led
some of us to suspect that the test was written by Unitarian jihadis
intent on demonstrating to all test takers that they are Unitarians but
did not realize it.

-- 
Richard