Belief-O-Matic

A few days ago, Andrew from Hackman's Musings (an awesome blog by the way), posted a link to the Belief-O-Matic, a quiz which asks you 20 questions about your religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and determines how close your beliefs are to 27 different religions or belief systems. I found it to be quite fun and interesting, so I thought I would share my results.

1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Reform Judaism (98%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (95%)
4. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (90%)
5. Baha'i Faith (85%)
6. Neo-Pagan (84%)
7. New Age (81%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (74%)
9. Sikhism (74%)
10. New Thought (65%)
11. Secular Humanism (64%)
12. Jainism (61%)
13. Orthodox Judaism (60%)
14. Theravada Buddhism (56%)
15. Taoism (55%)
16. Scientology (55%)
17. Islam (54%)
18. Orthodox Quaker (53%)
19. Hinduism (50%)
20. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (42%)
21. Nontheist (35%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (30%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (29%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (26%)
25. Roman Catholic (26%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (25%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (14%)

Overall, my results didn't surprise me too much. The only unexpected part was the 55% for Scientology. I guess that is mostly because I have just never thought of myself as having anything in common with Scientology, but I only know about some of their more controversial beliefs. 

Back From a Little Break (Literally!)

So, you might have noticed I disappeared for about a month. I had been contemplating taking a break from the internet in general and just focus on catching up on reading a backlog of books as well as working on some other projects. However, a few weeks ago, before I could make a decision, it was made for me. With a little help from my family's 75 pound dog, Ralph, my right hand was smashed by our rather heavy back door, breaking my index, middle, and ring fingers. It was completely an accident: Ralph didn't mean to hurt me and wasn't punished. Unfortunately, all three fingers ended up in splints, which made typing any significant amount both tedious and time consuming. The last of these splints (the one on my index finger, which had a more severe break than my middle or ring finger) was removed on Monday. While my fingers are still a bit stiff, I am able to type normally again.

Here's a picture of our dog Ralph:

He is almost 2 years old but is still a total puppy. He is extremely rambunctious and loves to play, which can sometimes get a bit rough, since he doesn't know his own strength. His favorite toys are ones that squeak and he can (and will) make them squeak for hours, which is not always pleasant for the human family members. While he likes to act tough and barks loudly, in reality he is a big baby. Thunderstorms scare him and any time we get one, he comes upstairs and crawls into bed with me, much to the displeasure of my two cats. He felt extremely bad for breaking my fingers. When I got back from the hospital, he immediately came up to me and started to lick my hand. He even slept with me in bed that night even though there were no thunderstorms.