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Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I was chatting with Chat GPT today.

I asked it several questions about theology. First, I posed it the question: "what religions believe we are creating God?" It didn't list religions but rather the theologies posed in the ideas of panentheism and the cumulative concept known has process theology. I then asked it several questions about this, and have now realized with the help of Chat GPT that my combination of beliefs in panendeism and syntheism is actually one unified idea of panentheism. Chat GPT confirmed to me that this idea makes sense from a theological prospective.

But something happened today that I found interesting. Often when I asked questions regarding the general concept of panentheism and paired it with the idea of Christianity, it often cited the United Church of Christ for its progressive theology and having it to be influenced by the theology. I am currently attending a Mennonite church and exploring my options for various religions, and I found the pacifism that Mennonites hold dearly to be respectable. However, the United Church of Christ was said by Chat GPT to hold a wider view point of divinity than held by most Mennonites.

Several months ago I looked on the UCC website for local churches of it nearby, and there's only one on the south side, and that congregation only speaks Spanish, unfortunately. I asked Chat GPT where nearby UCC churches were, but I think it gave me false positives. As someone who is shopping around for different religions, I was considering possibly trying to find Christians who possibly may be in the realm of as panentheists themselves, even if I myself don't strictly view myself Christian, either by practicing or culturally.

I joined my local Unitarian Universalist congregation but I found their religion to lack substantive spiritual, theological or religious structure. When I attend service it seemed like talking about the big ideas was discouraged, and my Chalice Circle group always wanted to avoid these types of subjects. I am still shopping for different religions and besides a mosque that is nearby everything here seems to be Christian, typically either Pentecostal or Lutheran. I don't really feel like I belong, not even with the progressive Mennonites, because while I do consider myself pacifist, I'm not fully on board with the message of Christ or accepting everything in the Bible.

Chat GPT said explicatively that there are no religions which panentheism is the core belief of the religion. It listed various religions which people may hold that belief, but none which panentheism is the focal point of the religion. If I bite my tongue I can still attend my Mennonite services, or if that website was wrong, try to find UCC churches nearby. I contacted the Unity Center (not UCC) in Milwaukee, but my issue with them is how they view thoughts as something magical in or of themselves, something I strongly disagree with, despite being on board for much of how they view their theology. I also attended a liberal Quaker meeting but felt uncomfortable in silent worship, despite agreeing with what seems to be their belief in process theology, or the inner light of divinity imbued within everyone.

I also contacted the Milwaukee Baha'is and found that while there are 500 local Baha'is around here, only a tenth of those do any amount of community participation, so meeting up to talk about religion with them is very difficult and even when I do I often disagree with them on what Baha'u'llah taught or on theological issues.

As someone who believes and practices in a certain degree of Omnism, searching for the right religion seems to be difficult when the most important parts of theology for me aren't the most important parts of theology for virtually any other religion around here. There are religions who meet up online, like the Terasem Joiners, but when I tried to attend their Second Life location, their virtual island was deserted and was quite rudimentary. As someone whose focus is on syntheism, panendeism and omnism, rather than Christ, it's almost impossible to find people who are religious around my community who isn't explicatively focused on Jesus.

I'm sure if I went looking for it, I could find a ride for Unitarian Universalist services, just as I have found for the local Mennonites. I ended things poorly with them though, because nobody was willing to give me a ride to Chalice Circles when I decided to move out of the central city, where the church is located. I am a lapsed Baha'i member as I no longer pray to the Baha-God I really don't believe in, and I don't fast, even though I still get magazines from both the UUs and Baha'is every few months or so.

My thread and poll asking about theologies led me to realize that there are many people here who self-identify as panentheists, and I was wondering what they do to find community in a landscape where panentheism is never taught or practiced in any religious circle. If I bite my tongue I can keep going to progressive Christian or UU services, but I know that their values and mine don't really combine, even with the Unitarians, because I don't identify as a Democrat, progressive or liberal on most issues. I do agree with the right to search for meaning for oneself, but when it comes to political issues I'm often biting my tongue as I disagree with their view points.

If we are being binary here, I would consider myself more right-wing leaning and more on the religious side, but most people who identify as such are fundamentalists, evangelicals, or non-denom Christians that I have virtually nothing in common with. I tend to vote Republican but on referendums I typically vote more liberal.

So that's where I'm at right now. I told the Mennonites that I'd stay with their community, but as someone who leans right more than half of the time, and a non-Christian, I typically disagree more often than not with what they believe in. There seems to be a community for everybody except for those who self-identify and focus on most of all on process theology, syntheism or panentheism. I'm associating myself with people who really don't think like me, they don't vote like me, and most of them are twice my age because the religious landscape is filled with senior citizens. There are things I do like about progressive religions, such as the ecumenical nature of them, gender and sexuality equality, and openness to alternative theologies, but whenever it comes to talking about politics I'm always biting my tongue.

Earthseed as a religion doesn't have a church to gather in. It doesn't have a community unlike other religions. There is a transhumanist church in Florida, but I refuse to move to a different state to be close to a church which everyone has a phobia of death. Transhumanists are good with technology and meeting them online is often fast and easy, even if we are too few and far apart, but most transhumanists are atheists rather than syntheist or spiritual in any way. I have associated myself with several techno-religions online, but I have dismantled my own subset of Earthseed as I felt I was more often than not disagreeing with what I originally stated in my Fandom and original website articles I wrote. And while I was getting traffic on them, I was attracting the wrong people with it. I still very much so believe in the basic concept of Exaltism, and I still espouse that on this website, as an advanced form of Earthseed that I have come to become synchronized with in time.

As an Omnist I should be okay with going from community to community and searching and exploring different religion and spiritual traditions, but the part of me who identifies as syntheist and panendeist feels left out, and the part of me who identifies as Republican also feels left out when I'm talking to these liberal Christians I really don't agree with them on anything and I'm just trying to find some amount of community. My best friend is Mormon but personally believes in Taoism, and he has taught me that being in right relation is better than always being right on differences, but sometimes I just want to be around people who think like me sometimes, and I find that virtually impossible to do. My parents are atheist Republicans and so we talk about politics but whenever I talk about religion with them they look and feel uncomfortable when I bring it up in discussion, as they distanced themselves from Catholicism by the time they became adults.

And that's about it. I'm still actively searching for religion and meaning in a life which I've opted out of a normal life, but I often talk to people and associate myself with people who really don't agree with me about anything. I'm pro-business, pro-religion, and pretty much pro-any organization, I've even learn to tame my hatred for unions as they forced my family to close their business several decades ago. But the kind of religion I truly believe in doesn't exist, as Earthseed lacks any real community or connection besides a website, and I'm not in the position of any power to do anything about it. So, even though I self-identify myself as part of the Earthseed movement, and Republican, I'm most likely going to talk to and associate with liberal, progressive Christians whom I usually disagree with because I want some degree of community in my life that I've been lacking without a career or volunteer job.

I'm in a really unfortunate position and I'm wondering if anyone else can relate to it.
 
Last edited:

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Staff member
Premium Member
Yes, I can relate. I would like to visit a Hindu or Buddhist congregation, as I feel those are probably the closest I come to agreement with, but where I live there are only Christian churches. I've decided I'm going to try a Christian church tomorrow night for Bible Study. I will be honest, if they ask, that I don't agree with everything in the Bible but that I have an open mind and like a lot of the philosophy the Bible has. This church is Episcopal, and I honestly don't know much about it but it seems to be laid back from the (very little) research I did. I guess I'll find out. I'm just going for community.
 

Gargovic Malkav

Well-Known Member
I was chatting with Chat GPT today.

I asked it several questions about theology. First, I posed it the question: "what religions believe we are creating God?" It didn't list religions but rather the theologies posed in the ideas of panentheism and the cumulative concept known has process theology. I then asked it several questions about this, and have now realized with the help of Chat GPT that my combination of beliefs in panendeism and syntheism is actually one unified idea of panentheism. Chat GPT confirmed to me that this idea makes sense from a theological prospective.

But something happened today that I found interesting. Often when I asked questions regarding the general concept of panentheism and paired it with the idea of Christianity, it often cited the United Church of Christ for its progressive theology and having it to be influenced by the theology. I am currently attending a Mennonite church and exploring my options for various religions, and I found the pacifism that Mennonites hold dearly to be respectable. However, the United Church of Christ was said by Chat GPT to hold a wider view point of divinity than held by most Mennonites.

Several months ago I looked on the UCC website for local churches of it nearby, and there's only one on the south side, and that congregation only speaks Spanish, unfortunately. I asked Chat GPT where nearby UCC churches were, but I think it gave me false positives. As someone who is shopping around for different religions, I was considering possibly trying to find Christians who possibly may be in the realm of as panentheists themselves, even if I myself don't strictly view myself Christian, either by practicing or culturally.

I joined my local Unitarian Universalist congregation but I found their religion to lack substantive spiritual, theological or religious structure. When I attend service it seemed like talking about the big ideas was discouraged, and my Chalice Circle group always wanted to avoid these types of subjects. I am still shopping for different religions and besides a mosque that is nearby everything here seems to be Christian, typically either Pentecostal or Lutheran. I don't really feel like I belong, not even with the progressive Mennonites, because while I do consider myself pacifist, I'm not fully on board with the message of Christ or accepting everything in the Bible.

Chat GPT said explicatively that there are no religions which panentheism is the core belief of the religion. It listed various religions which people may hold that belief, but none which panentheism is the focal point of the religion. If I bite my tongue I can still attend my Mennonite services, or if that website was wrong, try to find UCC churches nearby. I contacted the Unity Center (not UCC) in Milwaukee, but my issue with them is how they view thoughts as something magical in or of themselves, something I strongly disagree with, despite being on board for much of how they view their theology. I also attended a liberal Quaker meeting but felt uncomfortable in silent worship, despite agreeing with what seems to be their belief in process theology, or the inner light of divinity imbued within everyone.

I also contacted the Milwaukee Baha'is and found that while there are 500 local Baha'is around here, only a tenth of those do any amount of community participation, so meeting up to talk about religion with them is very difficult and even when I do I often disagree with them on what Baha'u'llah taught or on theological issues.

As someone who believes and practices in a certain degree of Omnism, searching for the right religion seems to be difficult when the most important parts of theology for me aren't the most important parts of theology for virtually any other religion around here. There are religions who meet up online, like the Terasem Joiners, but when I tried to attend their Second Life location, their virtual island was deserted and was quite rudimentary. As someone whose focus is on syntheism, panendeism and omnism, rather than Christ, it's almost impossible to find people who are religious around my community who isn't explicatively focused on Jesus.

I'm sure if I went looking for it, I could find a ride for Unitarian Universalist services, just as I have found for the local Mennonites. I ended things poorly with them though, because nobody was willing to give me a ride to Chalice Circles when I decided to move out of the central city, where the church is located. I am a lapsed Baha'i member as I no longer pray to the Baha-God I really don't believe in, and I don't fast, even though I still get magazines from both the UUs and Baha'is every few months or so.

My thread and poll asking about theologies led me to realize that there are many people here who self-identify as panentheists, and I was wondering what they do to find community in a landscape where panentheism is never taught or practiced in any religious circle. If I bite my tongue I can keep going to progressive Christian or UU services, but I know that their values and mine don't really combine, even with the Unitarians, because I don't identify as a Democrat, progressive or liberal on most issues. I do agree with the right to search for meaning for oneself, but when it comes to political issues I'm often biting my tongue as I disagree with their view points.

If we are being binary here, I would consider myself more right-wing leaning and more on the religious side, but most people who identify as such are fundamentalists, evangelicals, or non-denom Christians that I have virtually nothing in common with. I tend to vote Republican but on referendums I typically vote more liberal.

So that's where I'm at right now. I told the Mennonites that I'd stay with their community, but as someone who leans right more than half of the time, and a non-Christian, I typically disagree more often than not with what they believe in. There seems to be a community for everybody except for those who self-identify and focus on most of all on process theology, syntheism or panentheism. I'm associating myself with people who really don't think like me, they don't vote like me, and most of them are twice my age because the religious landscape is filled with senior citizens. There are things I do like about progressive religions, such as the ecumenical nature of them, gender and sexuality equality, and openness to alternative theologies, but whenever it comes to talking about politics I'm always biting my tongue.

Earthseed as a religion doesn't have a church to gather in. It doesn't have a community unlike other religions. There is a transhumanist church in Florida, but I refuse to move to a different state to be close to a church which everyone has a phobia of death. Transhumanists are good with technology and meeting them online is often fast and easy, even if we are too few and far apart, but most transhumanists are atheists rather than syntheist or spiritual in any way. I have associated myself with several techno-religions online, but I have dismantled my own subset of Earthseed as I felt I was more often than not disagreeing with what I originally stated in my Fandom and original website articles I wrote. And while I was getting traffic on them, I was attracting the wrong people with it. I still very much so believe in the basic concept of Exaltism, and I still espouse that on this website, as an advanced form of Earthseed that I have come to become synchronized with in time.

As an Omnist I should be okay with going from community to community and searching and exploring different religion and spiritual traditions, but the part of me who identifies as syntheist and panendeist feels left out, and the part of me who identifies as Republican also feels left out when I'm talking to these liberal Christians I really don't agree with them on anything and I'm just trying to find some amount of community. My best friend is Mormon but personally believes in Taoism, and he has taught me that being in right relation is better than always being right on differences, but sometimes I just want to be around people who think like me sometimes, and I find that virtually impossible to do. My parents are atheist Republicans and so we talk about politics but whenever I talk about religion with them they look and feel uncomfortable when I bring it up in discussion, as they distanced themselves from Catholicism by the time they became adults.

And that's about it. I'm still actively searching for religion and meaning in a life which I've opted out of a normal life, but I often talk to people and associate myself with people who really don't agree with me about anything. I'm pro-business, pro-religion, and pretty much pro-any organization, I've even learn to tame my hatred for unions as they forced my family to close their business several decades ago. But the kind of religion I truly believe in doesn't exist, as Earthseed lacks any real community or connection besides a website, and I'm not in the position of any power to do anything about it. So, even though I self-identify myself as part of the Earthseed movement, and Republican, I'm most likely going to talk to and associate with liberal, progressive Christians whom I usually disagree with because I want some degree of community in my life that I've been lacking without a career or volunteer job.

I'm in a really unfortunate position and I'm wondering if anyone else can relate to it.

I may have been in a similar position.
At some point I asked myself whether I'm being too perfectionistic about my expectations of finding this community, friend, or partner I was longing for and wondered if I have difficulty accepting the arbitrariness and lack of sameness that inherently comes with dealing with other people.

I believe these questions helped me to deal with the problem.
 

idea

Question Everything
I may have been in a similar position.
At some point I asked myself whether I'm being too perfectionistic about my expectations of finding this community, friend, or partner I was longing for and wondered if I have difficulty accepting the arbitrariness and lack of sameness that inherently comes with dealing with other people.

I believe these questions helped me to deal with the problem.


It seems to be a choice of either
a) changing and conforming to fit in and belong
b) remaining independent

For me, I felt alone in a crowd - could put on the mask, smile, agree, mimic - but it wasn't me in that room, it was just the mask who was accepted, the puppet who was loved. As soon as the mask is taken off, the love and acceptance vanish. Everyone loves masks, puppets, doormats, yes-men.

Not affiliated for me - sure, I do not *belong* anywhere, no tribe, no community - but I'm not sure anyone really belongs anywhere.. with years the mask becomes permanently affixed - lose yourself - but it's not you anymore, just mob-mentality that has taken over.
 

dannerz

Member
It seems to be a choice of either
a) changing and conforming to fit in and belong
b) remaining independent

For me, I felt alone in a crowd - could put on the mask, smile, agree, mimic - but it wasn't me in that room, it was just the mask who was accepted, the puppet who was loved. As soon as the mask is taken off, the love and acceptance vanish. Everyone loves masks, puppets, doormats, yes-men.

Not affiliated for me - sure, I do not *belong* anywhere, no tribe, no community - but I'm not sure anyone really belongs anywhere.. with years the mask becomes permanently affixed - lose yourself - but it's not you anymore, just mob-mentality that has taken over.
I would suggest being really kind and appreciative to yourself.

I have a wide variety of familiars and spirit friends,
which reduces my loneliness greatly.
Most people don't have that, though.
It's lonely to be with just one species.
Especially if it is only humans.

Sifting through the crap,
one can eventually find true friends
after a lot of searching.
 

idea

Question Everything
I would suggest being really kind and appreciative to yourself.

I have a wide variety of familiars and spirit friends,
which reduces my loneliness greatly.
Most people don't have that, though.
It's lonely to be with just one species.
Especially if it is only humans.

Sifting through the crap,
one can eventually find true friends
after a lot of searching.

I'm not alone, constantly surrounded by people at work, family, have pets. I'm not sure what a true friend is - just people who you know/ who you have known for years? Familiars - I have familiars, at work, at home. I'm not fully transparent with them, nor they with me, and perhaps that is why we're all still hanging around one another after years, healthy boundaries. There's crap in everyone, and good too. Yin/Yang. A balance, what to share, when to stay silent, a balance of community and independence, a balance of agreement and disagreement, never fully a sheeple - never fully committed to any group, always thinking independently, never just following - it seems a healthy balance. It's ok to me not to fully belong anywhere :)
 

Jimmy

King Phenomenon
U could always chat with Jesus or whom ever you’d like to call him. He’s around. Always around.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I was chatting with Chat GPT today.

I asked it several questions about theology. First, I posed it the question: "what religions believe we are creating God?" It didn't list religions but rather the theologies posed in the ideas of panentheism and the cumulative concept known has process theology. I then asked it several questions about this, and have now realized with the help of Chat GPT that my combination of beliefs in panendeism and syntheism is actually one unified idea of panentheism. Chat GPT confirmed to me that this idea makes sense from a theological prospective.

But something happened today that I found interesting. Often when I asked questions regarding the general concept of panentheism and paired it with the idea of Christianity, it often cited the United Church of Christ for its progressive theology and having it to be influenced by the theology. I am currently attending a Mennonite church and exploring my options for various religions, and I found the pacifism that Mennonites hold dearly to be respectable. However, the United Church of Christ was said by Chat GPT to hold a wider view point of divinity than held by most Mennonites.

Several months ago I looked on the UCC website for local churches of it nearby, and there's only one on the south side, and that congregation only speaks Spanish, unfortunately. I asked Chat GPT where nearby UCC churches were, but I think it gave me false positives. As someone who is shopping around for different religions, I was considering possibly trying to find Christians who possibly may be in the realm of as panentheists themselves, even if I myself don't strictly view myself Christian, either by practicing or culturally.

I joined my local Unitarian Universalist congregation but I found their religion to lack substantive spiritual, theological or religious structure. When I attend service it seemed like talking about the big ideas was discouraged, and my Chalice Circle group always wanted to avoid these types of subjects. I am still shopping for different religions and besides a mosque that is nearby everything here seems to be Christian, typically either Pentecostal or Lutheran. I don't really feel like I belong, not even with the progressive Mennonites, because while I do consider myself pacifist, I'm not fully on board with the message of Christ or accepting everything in the Bible.

Chat GPT said explicatively that there are no religions which panentheism is the core belief of the religion. It listed various religions which people may hold that belief, but none which panentheism is the focal point of the religion. If I bite my tongue I can still attend my Mennonite services, or if that website was wrong, try to find UCC churches nearby. I contacted the Unity Center (not UCC) in Milwaukee, but my issue with them is how they view thoughts as something magical in or of themselves, something I strongly disagree with, despite being on board for much of how they view their theology. I also attended a liberal Quaker meeting but felt uncomfortable in silent worship, despite agreeing with what seems to be their belief in process theology, or the inner light of divinity imbued within everyone.

I also contacted the Milwaukee Baha'is and found that while there are 500 local Baha'is around here, only a tenth of those do any amount of community participation, so meeting up to talk about religion with them is very difficult and even when I do I often disagree with them on what Baha'u'llah taught or on theological issues.

As someone who believes and practices in a certain degree of Omnism, searching for the right religion seems to be difficult when the most important parts of theology for me aren't the most important parts of theology for virtually any other religion around here. There are religions who meet up online, like the Terasem Joiners, but when I tried to attend their Second Life location, their virtual island was deserted and was quite rudimentary. As someone whose focus is on syntheism, panendeism and omnism, rather than Christ, it's almost impossible to find people who are religious around my community who isn't explicatively focused on Jesus.

I'm sure if I went looking for it, I could find a ride for Unitarian Universalist services, just as I have found for the local Mennonites. I ended things poorly with them though, because nobody was willing to give me a ride to Chalice Circles when I decided to move out of the central city, where the church is located. I am a lapsed Baha'i member as I no longer pray to the Baha-God I really don't believe in, and I don't fast, even though I still get magazines from both the UUs and Baha'is every few months or so.

My thread and poll asking about theologies led me to realize that there are many people here who self-identify as panentheists, and I was wondering what they do to find community in a landscape where panentheism is never taught or practiced in any religious circle. If I bite my tongue I can keep going to progressive Christian or UU services, but I know that their values and mine don't really combine, even with the Unitarians, because I don't identify as a Democrat, progressive or liberal on most issues. I do agree with the right to search for meaning for oneself, but when it comes to political issues I'm often biting my tongue as I disagree with their view points.

If we are being binary here, I would consider myself more right-wing leaning and more on the religious side, but most people who identify as such are fundamentalists, evangelicals, or non-denom Christians that I have virtually nothing in common with. I tend to vote Republican but on referendums I typically vote more liberal.

So that's where I'm at right now. I told the Mennonites that I'd stay with their community, but as someone who leans right more than half of the time, and a non-Christian, I typically disagree more often than not with what they believe in. There seems to be a community for everybody except for those who self-identify and focus on most of all on process theology, syntheism or panentheism. I'm associating myself with people who really don't think like me, they don't vote like me, and most of them are twice my age because the religious landscape is filled with senior citizens. There are things I do like about progressive religions, such as the ecumenical nature of them, gender and sexuality equality, and openness to alternative theologies, but whenever it comes to talking about politics I'm always biting my tongue.

Earthseed as a religion doesn't have a church to gather in. It doesn't have a community unlike other religions. There is a transhumanist church in Florida, but I refuse to move to a different state to be close to a church which everyone has a phobia of death. Transhumanists are good with technology and meeting them online is often fast and easy, even if we are too few and far apart, but most transhumanists are atheists rather than syntheist or spiritual in any way. I have associated myself with several techno-religions online, but I have dismantled my own subset of Earthseed as I felt I was more often than not disagreeing with what I originally stated in my Fandom and original website articles I wrote. And while I was getting traffic on them, I was attracting the wrong people with it. I still very much so believe in the basic concept of Exaltism, and I still espouse that on this website, as an advanced form of Earthseed that I have come to become synchronized with in time.

As an Omnist I should be okay with going from community to community and searching and exploring different religion and spiritual traditions, but the part of me who identifies as syntheist and panendeist feels left out, and the part of me who identifies as Republican also feels left out when I'm talking to these liberal Christians I really don't agree with them on anything and I'm just trying to find some amount of community. My best friend is Mormon but personally believes in Taoism, and he has taught me that being in right relation is better than always being right on differences, but sometimes I just want to be around people who think like me sometimes, and I find that virtually impossible to do. My parents are atheist Republicans and so we talk about politics but whenever I talk about religion with them they look and feel uncomfortable when I bring it up in discussion, as they distanced themselves from Catholicism by the time they became adults.

And that's about it. I'm still actively searching for religion and meaning in a life which I've ophttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8_Ballted out of a normal life, but I often talk to people and associate myself with people who really don't agree with me about anything. I'm pro-business, pro-religion, and pretty much pro-any organization, I've even learn to tame my hatred for unions as they forced my family to close their business several decades ago. But the kind of religion I truly believe in doesn't exist, as Earthseed lacks any real community or connection besides a website, and I'm not in the position of any power to do anything about it. So, even though I self-identify myself as part of the Earthseed movement, and Republican, I'm most likely going to talk to and associate with liberal, progressive Christians whom I usually disagree with because I want some degree of community in my life that I've been lacking without a career or volunteer job.

I'm in a really unfortunate position and I'm wondering if anyone else can relate to it.
Well, if your Magic 8-ball hasn't cleared things up I wouldn't know where to turn.
:( ;)

Have you tried: $name
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
Well, if your Magic 8-ball hasn't cleared things up I wouldn't know where to turn.
:( ;)

Have you tried: $name
(In case people don't know $name is the Belief-o-Matic.)

I get UU or Liberal Quaker 100% every time. And everything else is a much smaller percentage. I already know the religion I believe in, it's Earthseed, but since it's difficult to practice the religion I believe in, I just go to the religions which I can do something about anything with. Nobody is really 100% towards one religion anyways, and if I try I can find commonalities with many people, despite having some stark differences. The only reason why I get 100% on UU and Liberal Quakerism on the Belief-o-Matic or Select Smart quiz is because they are non-creedal religions, but as Daniel Kanter of UU-Dallas once said "I don't really care about the Gods you believe in." To me that is actually worse than a religion that believes in a different God than the one I understand and acknowledge. :shrug:
 

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
(In case people don't know $name is the Belief-o-Matic.)

I get UU or Liberal Quaker 100% every time. And everything else is a much smaller percentage. I already know the religion I believe in, it's Earthseed, but since it's difficult to practice the religion I believe in, I just go to the religions which I can do something about anything with. Nobody is really 100% towards one religion anyways, and if I try I can find commonalities with many people, despite having some stark differences. The only reason why I get 100% on UU and Liberal Quakerism on the Belief-o-Matic or Select Smart quiz is because they are non-creedal religions, but as Daniel Kanter of UU-Dallas once said "I don't really care about the Gods you believe in." To me that is actually worse than a religion that believes in a different God than the one I understand and acknowledge. :shrug:
I wish those quizzes were more detailed. Sure, they are for Christian denominations, but otherwise they ignore that all the other religions have their own sets of denominations/sects too.
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I wish those quizzes were more detailed. Sure, they are for Christian denominations, but otherwise they ignore that all the other religions have their own sets of denominations/sects too.
There's actually a way when using the Select Smart version to actually filter out non-Christian religions for your results. So you're correct, they really do stress Christianity and several different Christian sects and denominations due to its popularity.

I made my own quiz from a website that used to allow you to make quizzes on their platform for free. When they changed their business model and forced people to pay $50 a month or they would remove free quizzes, I decided not to pay and lost the quiz because of that. There were advantages and disadvantages to that quiz. It would only give you the top result, but I could list as many questions and results as I wanted. During its peak I had 60 questions and 60 results, and every time I took this quiz my result would be Terasem.

I would like to try using Select Smart again to make a quiz with a larger variety of religions than the official quiz. I've attempted this several times, but Select Smart's website is sensitive and finnicky about certain things, and after I create my quiz it often doesn't display the quiz due to some error in how I wrote the questions or results, like how Baha'i has accents and an apostrophe in its name that Select Smart will delete your quiz for if you accidently keep it in results.

Since then I did successfully make a quiz in Select Smart which gives 15 questions and 15 results asking questions about which music subscription service you might want to use. I made a thread about it here and the quiz is here. I have enough knowledge of most religions, even alternative religions, which I probably could easily try making a Select Smart quiz on various religions, if Select Smart wasn't so sensitive and deleting my quizzes due to typography. Someday I might try my hand in making such, and Select Smart already has a wide assortment of quizzes like this done by different people already. There's ones exclusively focused on Christianity and irreligion too.

Maybe what I'll try doing is writing up the quiz in Microsoft Word, first with results, then the questions, and then transform them into a Select Smart quiz. That way, if there are any errors and I need to edit it I'll have all the information I need in Word first and won't lose any of the quiz data that way. I don't know what else I should do regarding this. It's going to take an entire afternoon to do this again though and I'm going to have to really think about this again before taking the information from Word to Select Smart's website. And I'm still going to need to extensively use Google for this. Creating a quiz like this is easy, but creating a GOOD quiz for this will be much more difficult.

Wish me luck. When I'm done with it and feel like it's ready to share I'll make a thread on it in the Quizzes forum under General Discussion.
 

JustGeorge

Imperfect
Staff member
Premium Member
There's actually a way when using the Select Smart version to actually filter out non-Christian religions for your results. So you're correct, they really do stress Christianity and several different Christian sects and denominations due to its popularity.

I made my own quiz from a website that used to allow you to make quizzes on their platform for free. When they changed their business model and forced people to pay $50 a month or they would remove free quizzes, I decided not to pay and lost the quiz because of that. There were advantages and disadvantages to that quiz. It would only give you the top result, but I could list as many questions and results as I wanted. During its peak I had 60 questions and 60 results, and every time I took this quiz my result would be Terasem.

I would like to try using Select Smart again to make a quiz with a larger variety of religions than the official quiz. I've attempted this several times, but Select Smart's website is sensitive and finnicky about certain things, and after I create my quiz it often doesn't display the quiz due to some error in how I wrote the questions or results, like how Baha'i has accents and an apostrophe in its name that Select Smart will delete your quiz for if you accidently keep it in results.

Since then I did successfully make a quiz in Select Smart which gives 15 questions and 15 results asking questions about which music subscription service you might want to use. I made a thread about it here and the quiz is here. I have enough knowledge of most religions, even alternative religions, which I probably could easily try making a Select Smart quiz on various religions, if Select Smart wasn't so sensitive and deleting my quizzes due to typography. Someday I might try my hand in making such, and Select Smart already has a wide assortment of quizzes like this done by different people already. There's ones exclusively focused on Christianity and irreligion too.

Maybe what I'll try doing is writing up the quiz in Microsoft Word, first with results, then the questions, and then transform them into a Select Smart quiz. That way, if there are any errors and I need to edit it I'll have all the information I need in Word first and won't lose any of the quiz data that way. I don't know what else I should do regarding this. It's going to take an entire afternoon to do this again though and I'm going to have to really think about this again before taking the information from Word to Select Smart's website. And I'm still going to need to extensively use Google for this. Creating a quiz like this is easy, but creating a GOOD quiz for this will be much more difficult.

Wish me luck. When I'm done with it and feel like it's ready to share I'll make a thread on it in the Quizzes forum under General Discussion.
Good luck! If you ever do manage to make such a quiz, don't leave out the many Hindu, Pagan, and Buddhist denominations!

Or, maybe you could make a really general religious quiz, and make secondary quizzes for that. Like, first determine what umbrella they fall under, and then offer denominations/sects. You could get really detailed with it, too. Like, the quiz says the person is Hindu. They take a second quiz to find they're Saiva Hindu. Then they take another that helps them find what sect within Saivism closest fits their views.

That would take awhile, but it might be fun, if a person has the time. :D
 

Gargovic Malkav

Well-Known Member
For me, I felt alone in a crowd - could put on the mask, smile, agree, mimic - but it wasn't me in that room, it was just the mask who was accepted, the puppet who was loved. As soon as the mask is taken off, the love and acceptance vanish.

Reminds me of my teens and somewhat my early twenties.
It seems to be a choice of either
a) changing and conforming to fit in and belong
b) remaining independent

For me it's not really an either vs or question anymore.
If I want to live in society, the "civilized" world, I'm going to have to conform to a degree to fit in, otherwise I just feel like a self-absorbed know-it-all who fancies himself too good for this world.
Trying to fit in also helps me to sustain the ability to put myself in other people's shoes, which contributes to my ability to empathize.
If I wish to remain fiercely independent, I think should migrate to some distant, remote place and live self-sufficiently on my own.
I have been chewing on that idea for a while, but think the loneliness will kill me.
It would also probably break my family's heart, as they would likely have little to no contact with me, and I would probably miss them too (not to mention the technological and other luxurious advantages I've grown quite attached to).

So I chose to live in society, whilst having an accepting attitude towards my quirks and anti-social tendencies.
This also helps me to fight the pain and madness of loneliness.
Not affiliated for me - sure, I do not *belong* anywhere, no tribe, no community - but I'm not sure anyone really belongs anywhere.. with years the mask becomes permanently affixed - lose yourself - but it's not you anymore, just mob-mentality that has taken over.

I think lone wolves aren't necessarily more immune to "losing themselves" than conformists are.
People who spend a lot of time alone (which includes "alone" inside their heads rather than joining the mob mentality, even though they may hang out with friends and others close to them) can get dangerously weird, although I'm aware that conformists have a tendency to get stuck in a narrow minded way of thinking and judging, and develop habits and and views that can make them equally dangerous.
I wonder what kind of standard you use to measure such things, though?
When does one "lose oneself"?
How do you measure that?
To me, this tends to be a big grey area.
 
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idea

Question Everything
Reminds me of my teens and somewhat my early twenties.


For me it's not really an either vs or question anymore.
If I want to live in society, the "civilized" world, I'm going to have to conform to a degree to fit in, otherwise I just feel like a self-absorbed know-it-all who fancies himself too good for this world.
Trying to fit in also helps me to sustain the ability to put myself in other people's shoes, which contributes to my ability to empathize.
If I wish to remain fiercely independent, I think should migrate to some distant, remote place and live self-sufficiently on my own.
I have been chewing on that idea for a while, but think the loneliness will kill me.
It would also probably break my family's heart, as they would likely have little to no contact with me, and I would probably miss them too (not to mention the technological and other luxurious advantages I've grown quite attached to).

So I chose to live in society, whilst having an accepting attitude towards my quirks and anti-social tendencies.
This also helps me to fight the pain and madness of loneliness.


I think lone wolves aren't necessarily more immune to "losing themselves" than conformists are.
People who spend a lot of time alone (which includes "alone" inside their heads rather than joining the mob mentality, even though they may hang out with friends and others close to them) can get dangerously weird, although I'm aware that conformists have a tendency to get stuck in a narrow minded way of thinking and judging, and develop habits and and views that can make them equally dangerous.
I wonder what kind of standard you use to measure such things, though?
When does one "lose oneself"?
How do you measure that?
To me, this tends to be a big grey area.

Really good points, sometimes I feel like a puck on an air-hockey table, difficult to find and stay on that center-line. I've experienced the all-in, brainwashed, marching in-step group-think tribalism thing - lost my mind in a cult for around 20 years, with some of those years being good - connected / belonging / feeling like I understood others, was connected, belonged etc. No one in a cult believes they are in a cult. It's an amazing experience, being connected like that.

For me, group-think went bad after dealing with child-abuse in the group (Mormons, but other groups are just as bad). It wasn't just one bad apple, it takes a tribe to allow, cover up, ignore, victim-blame - it takes an entire tribe not thinking for themselves, following their leader. I'm now neck-deep trying to pull those kids up and out of that mess, kicked out of the group that was once my foundation, now forced into a position of being a leader instead of being led.

dependent → unhealthy co-dependent → unhealthy independent → healthy, responsible, authentic interdependence

To be honest, I miss being in that cult, miss feeling that connected to everyone, miss that feeling of (false) security, miss the (false) support, (false) security. It would be great to feel connected again - really connected, in a non-dogmatic, mutually respectful, non-authoritarian, flexible group.

Perhaps it takes an unhealthy cult to create that in-sink, marching-together sensation - I have said "goodbye" to that type of membership/connection though, an unhealthy addiction, unhealthy dependency.

Meeting-of-minds: When I find something that is agreed upon within multiple groups, the same pattern in different countries, different backgrounds - those are gems to me, flickers of light. Can it be reproduced? Does it hold up to scrutiny from diverse perspectives? Is it offended by questions or does it embrace experimentation and new ideas and knowledge?

Big grey areas - are there only 7 colors in the rainbow? red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, white, gray, brown - only 7 notes in a musical scale? 7 days in a week? depends on what culture you come from. Light wavelengths are not divided - there are no lines in a real rainbow. A pentatonic scale has 5 notes. Indian music systems use 22 notes, the Arabic scale has 24 notes, what is defined as "green" in one country is a blur between colors in another.

Dualistic (this group, that group, red/yellow, major/minor) → relativist (when in Rome) → ... finding "home", an imperfect place to settle down in.

home - it's not a place where everyone thinks alike or agrees, or is even 100% transparent with one another. I guess you have to be at home with yourself, and at home with everyone else too - embrace the mystery, agnostic, imperfect, not quite connected but as real as it gets home.

A big thank you to everyone here on RF, it's great to have a place to read/write/think/ramble in.
 
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