By SHARON TUBBS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 17, 2002

Sometimes people's religious beliefs are hard to pin down -- even for them.

You may be spiritual but not religious, or you may be a strict devotee of a particular religious doctrine.

You may believe in God (big "G"), or claim many gods (little "g"). Maybe you think there is no god, or reason that if there were, the human intellect wouldn't be able to comprehend him (her? it?) anyway. Is god even the right term? What about "higher power," "inner force" or "the sacred"?

And when you add up all your beliefs, what do they mean? Religion sections in bookstores are bulging with "isms" to clarify your situation -- Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Unitarian Universalism, agnosticism.

But which one fits you?

A popular interfaith Web site (www.beliefnet.com) offers a quick, automated way to identify your spiritual self: the Belief-O-Matic. It's a quiz consisting of 20 multiple choice questions about God, the origin of life on earth, abortion, homosexuality, divorce and so on.

You answer the questions and rate each one's level of importance: high, medium or low. A data base measures the answers against the key principles of 27 religions.

Voila! Within seconds, the program serves up a list of religions ranked by how closely they match your answers. For instance, your ideas might match 100 percent with conservative Protestantism, 85 percent with Eastern Orthodox worship, 83 percent Seventh Day Adventism, and so on.

More than 100,000 people have taken the quiz since it debuted six months ago, said Jonathan Lowet, director of Beliefnet's editorial products. People taking the quiz are not asked to give their names, and the site keeps no record of the results, he said.

Some think the Belief-O-Matic is funny, Lowet said. Others, surprised by their results, begin learning about new religions. A few clergy members, Lowet said, were offended, saying Belief-O-Matic might cause people unsure about their beliefs to switch faiths prematurely.

The quiz is not intended to be a litmus test for religion. But if taking it gets people thinking about their relationship, if any, with God, Lowet said, "We think that's a great thing." In the spirit of religious education, or more precisely, just for the fun of it, the Times asked several people in the Tampa Bay area to take the Belief-O-Matic quiz and tell us the results.

They discovered what they already knew: People's beliefs are hard to categorize, even by computer.

The Rev. Edward Lamp, 58, is pastor of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Tampa.

Lamp says he breezed through Belief-O-Matic in about 15 minutes. The quiz pegged him correctly as 100 percent Roman Catholic. But to his surprise, the test also deemed his answers 100 percent Eastern Orthodox, which is slightly different from Catholicism when it comes to theology, Lamp said.

He was unimpressed with Belief-O-Matic and would not recommend it. "The questions were extremely ambiguous," Lamp said, especially those about human incarnations of God and the "nature of the deity."

For several of them, Lamp avoided choosing any of the multiple choice options and clicked "none of the above."

So much of a person's faith is based on personal experience that a multiple choice quiz just doesn't have the scope to grasp it, he said.

"How do you take a test to know what's going on inside one's religious experience?" Lamp said.

Bill and Carol Newell, 77 and 75 respectively, of Spring Hill, are members of the Hernando County Baha'i Community. According to the Web site for the Baha'i Study Center, their religion's central teaching is "the unity of the human race, that every person on the earth was created by God and that we are all connected as members of one family."

The Newells, both retired, said they downloaded the quiz and spent one to two hours thoughtfully discussing and answering the questions on paper.

The question about God and human incarnations was clear-cut for them: "God is supreme, and no incarnations."

Outspoken in their community about their faith, the couple went back to the Web site later and plugged their answers in for the final results.

Hmmm. They came out 100 percent Reform Jews. Baha'i was a close second at 97 percent.

"Is there a margin for error?" Newell asked. He reasoned there was, and assumed that's what accounted for the results.

Of course, people of the same religion could answer the quiz questions in different ways. A person who thinks of himself as a Baha'i might answer in a way that the computer is programmed to regard as more Jewish than Baha'i.

The Newells enjoyed taking the quiz and said it touched on many aspects of faith. "It's a good exercise in spiritual understanding," Bill Newell said.

Stephanie Kohan, 31, of St. Petersburg, is a youth director for Congregation B'Nai Israel. Her answers were 100 percent in keeping with Reform Judaism and 88 percent with Orthodox Judaism, Belief-O-Matic said.

But Kohan was raised a Conservative Jew, a more liberal movement than Orthodox Judaism, but less so than Reform.

"B'Nai Israel is Conservative, so it surprised me that it said I was Reform," Kohan said. "I guess my answers were a little more liberal than the rest of the world."

One problem: Conservative Judaism is not among the 27 religions considered by Belief-O-Matic. The quiz's creators wanted to limit Belief-O-Matic to 20 questions, so the number of religions had to be limited, too, said Beliefnet's Lowet. They figured a Conservative Jew would rank high in both Reform and Orthodox Judaism.

Sikhism came in second on Kohan's results list at 92 percent. "I certainly would like to look that up," she said. "I've never heard of it."

Belief-O-Matic lets quiz-takers click on the listed religions for a basic outline. "Sikhs are those who are disciples to the Guru," according to the outline. "Sikhs believe that liberation from the karmic cycle of rebirths occurs in the merging of the human spirit with the all-embracing spirit of God."

Some questions were hard to understand, Kohan said. One asked if baptism or initiation ceremonies were essential. Could Jewish circumcisions fall under "initiation" ceremonies? Unsure, Kohan clicked that such ceremonies were not essential.

Still, Kohan said, "I would say if people are questioning religion . . . the test might offer some guidance into which religion to further study."

The Rev. Carole Yorke, 53, is minister of Spirit of Life Unitarian Universalists in Odessa. Yorke said she had taken Belief-O-Matic once before. "I come out the same way every time," she said -- 100 percent Unitarian Universalist.

Others at her church have taken the quiz. They, too, were categorized as Unitarian Universalists. Still, Yorke called the quiz overly simplistic. For instance, a question about the number and nature of the "deity (God, gods, higher power)" was too limited in its approach. The terms deity, God, god and higher power don't suit her, Yorke said. She prefers "the sacred," a term that can be applied on a broader scale.

"The sacred can be found in love, through us," she said.

People unsure about their faiths or lack thereof should visit different places of worship to find their spiritual niche, Yorke said. "I think this (quiz) is more for fun than for serious theological reflection."

The name, itself, makes Yorke chuckle: Belief-O-Matic?

"It just makes me think of an I Love Lucy show," she said.

Christa Douse, 31, belongs to Genesis Worship Center Church, a nondenominational congregation in St. Petersburg. Test results said Douse was nearly 100 percent Orthodox Quaker. Baha'i and Islam also ranked high on her list.

But Douse, a marketing sales assistant, says she subscribes to none of those faiths and would not consider them.

So, what is she?

Catholic perhaps? "I believe in the catechism," she said. "I believe in structure."

What about Protestantism? "I believe in confessing with your mouth," in being "born-again," she said.

She can understand the quiz's choices of Baha'i and Quaker, too. Like members of those religions, she agrees that taking care of the environment is important and answered questions to that effect.

But Douse says religious labels often limit our perception of God. "In my belief of who the Lord is, we have made him a portion of a lot of different religions," she said.

She prefers to call herself a "born-again believer." That means "You've accepted Christ into your heart again," Douse said. "You've confessed that you didn't know God at one time and now you want to know him."

Here are some of the questions posed by the Belief-O-Matic, which can be seen at www.beliefnet.com. What is the number and nature of the deity (God, gods, higher power)? Choose one.

Only one God -- a corporeal spirit (has a body), supreme, personal God Almighty, the Creator.

Only one God -- an incorporeal (no body) spirit, supreme, personal God Almighty, the Creator.

Multiple personal gods (or goddesses) regarded as facets of one God, and/or as separate gods.

The supreme force is the impersonal Ultimate Reality (or life force, ultimate truth, cosmic order, absolute bliss, universal soul), which resides within and/or beyond all.

The supreme existence is both the eternal, impersonal, formless Ultimate Reality, and personal God (or gods).

No God or supreme force. Or not sure. Or not important.

None of the above

Why is there so much suffering in the world? Choose ALL that apply.

The original disobedience of Adam and Eve caused all mankind to inherit mortality, which includes bodily imperfection, illness, and decay.

Suffering is part of God's divine will, plan, or design (to discipline, test, challenge, strengthen faith, strengthen character, promote moral growth, or for reasons that we cannot or may not know).

Suffering is a state of mind (or illusion); only our spiritual nature is real.

Spiritual or cosmic imbalance and disharmony may result in suffering.

Unwholesome thoughts and/or deeds (greed, hatred, and violence) in this or prior lives return as suffering (karma).

None of the above; human suffering has nothing to do with the supernatural or karma.

Respond to the following moral statements based on how you would want your religion or faith category to address them.

Elective abortion should be accepted (not proclaimed or treated as immoral).

• Agree. Disagree. Not Applicable.

Homosexual behavior should be regarded as immoral or out of harmony.

• Agree. Disagree. Not Applicable.

Roles for women and men should be prescribed.

• Agree. Disagree. Not Applicable.

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