Religions Re-weighed

Some evolutions since the last time around, taking BeliefNet's Belief-O-Matic. Frankly I wasn't expecting Theravada to show up first, I assumed my views to be too cynical and universal to get a proper orthodox score. It's a wonder in its own right that anything crossed the 90% line! Among the interesting movers since May 2004:

Rising:
Theravada: 59% -> 100 %
Mahayana: 90% -> 99%
Taoism: 43% -> 77%
Nontheist: 16% -> 40%
Secular Humanism: 29% -> 57%

I wonder what marked the 1% difference between Theravada and Mahayana! I suppose I am a bit of a transvehicular hitch-hiker. Shared field with Tao is steadily growing; the integrated flow of the universe is more vivid by the day. Nontheism is nontheism, which I suppose is a milder way to say atheism, and secular humanism is, well, secular humanism.

Falling:
Hinduism: 100% -> 69%
Sikhism: 94% -> 70%
Islam: 45% -> 30%
Baha'i Faith: 65% -> 45%
Orthodox Judaism: 64% -> 43%

Hinduism took an unavoidable dive with god-concepts and ritualism reassessed, Sikhism, Islam, Baha'I and Judaism following its trail. You can't really start explaining to the quiz machine how the god-symbols, skillfully understood and stripped of anthropomorphic superimposition, parallel the enlightenment, the emptiness and the absolute of non-theistic traditions. Understood at face value, the theistic symbols can at times be less than helpful. Understood on a meta-level, the boundaries between theism and non-theism begin to disintegrate.

Of course, responding to series of questions with narrow options can only yield a result with limited nuances, missing details that can turn the lists upside down. For example, with Islam ranked at 30% in the test, there are yet aspects of it that rank it, as a method of cultivation, quite well on my scale, and we are not talking about Sufi, but plain old Islam. Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, the desert fathers' heritage and all, also deserve a higher place on the carts.

May 2008:

1. Theravada Buddhism (100%)
2. Mahayana Buddhism (99%)
3. Neo-Pagan (88%)
4. Jainism (82%)
5. Unitarian Universalism (80%)
6. New Age (78%)
7. Taoism (77%)
8. Liberal Quakers (73%)
9. Sikhism (70%)
10. Hinduism (69%)
11. New Thought (60%)
12. Secular Humanism (57%)
13. Reform Judaism (56%)
14. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (55%)
15. Orthodox Quaker (55%)
16. Scientology (54%)
17. Baha'i Faith (45%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (44%)
19. Orthodox Judaism (43%)
20. Nontheist (40%)
21. Islam (30%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (23%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (20%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (20%)
26. Roman Catholic (20%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (10%)

May 2004:

1. Hinduism (100%)
2. Sikhism (94%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (90%)
4. Neo-Pagan (87%)
5. Unitarian Universalism (77%)
6. Jainism (68%)
7. New Age (68%)
8. Baha'i Faith (65%)
9. Orthodox Judaism (64%)
10. Liberal Quakers (61%)
11. Reform Judaism (61%)
12. Theravada Buddhism (59%)
13. New Thought (52%)
14. Scientology (48%)
15. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (46%)
16. Islam (45%)
17. Taoism (43%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (34%)
19. Orthodox Quaker (34%)
20. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (32%)
21. Secular Humanism (29%)
22. Eastern Orthodox (29%)
23. Roman Catholic (29%)
24. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (26%)
25. Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
26. Jehovah's Witness (20%)
27. Nontheist (16%)