Hmmmm

I can't remember where I found this quiz, but unlike most of the quizzes I take, this one got me thinking. I somewhat agree with my results. I am a relatively modern thinker. I am spiritual, and I think a life limited to the merely rational is seriously lacking in ways which defy explanation. But what about the whole religion thing? According to the World View Quiz,

You scored as Cultural Creative, Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 75% Idealist 63% Existentialist 56% Postmodernist 50% Romanticist 44% Modernist 19% Fundamentalist 0% Materialist 0% What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com Just what is it that makes a person religious? After all, I do have a religion. A professing Christian, I find great joy, strength, comfort, peace, guidance, wisdom and yes, salvation, in God/dess. (To explain that appellation again, I see the Almighty as beyond gender and revealing the Divine Self in ways both masculine and feminine.) Though I respect the many different strains of Christianity, I find the Apostle's Creed is still the simplest expression of Christian belief for me, so I haven't strayed too far from traditional dogma. Worship, prayer, praise, seeking to consciously understand and develop spiritual gifts, learning to listen to the Holy Spirit, the study of scripture and other Christian writings are a regular, indeed, daily part of my life. I take the moral principles of the Bible seriously and try to live my life by them as I best understand them, while remaining painfully aware of my shortcomings, hypocrisies and extremely limited understanding. I am a member of a church and participate in rituals with seriousness, joy, and a deep sense of connectedness and tradition. But...there's always a but, and with me, there are quite a few. As an adult, my church attendance has never been regular. My path as a Christian has most often been a solitary one, and many would argue that a Christian truly can't go it alone, that one needs the church as much as the church needs the individual. My behavior and my language are sometimes as earthy as my soul and spirit can be exalted. (I've always loved Chaucer's description of the Wife of Bath and in my more egotistical moments thought it could be applied to me. To paraphrase, She had the streak of coarseness that is often found in characters both fine and large.) I've quakingly peered between my eye covering fingers into my shadow and recognized the beast in there as myself. I know I'm both a good and bad person. My faith is built more on questions, seeking and trying to make sense of issues beyond logic than on mere acceptance. As a political liberal in a conservative, predominantly Fundamentalist region, I've been told I was hellbound more times than I can count. As someone with a mystical bent, I've also been labelled a heretic and a witch. (Since some of my Wiccan friends are among the finest people I've ever known, I've said thank you when the latter has been flung in my face.) I taught my child my Christian beliefs and have tried to be a good model of those beliefs in action. Her confirmation was a day of deep joy for me, and I struggle now to not force my beliefs onto her as she redefines what she truly believes (currently agnosticism, leaning towards atheism with a big reliance on rationality). God/dess did not force humanity into belief, and I can't force the womanchild to believe something that doesn't illuminate her soul. I believe that accepting and embracing religious diversity is a must in this world, and that may be one of the most difficult challenges humans face. Beyond all that, nothing gets me madder than some of the actions I see coming from organized Christianity, and few things lift my soul more than some traditional hymns. So, am I religious or merely spiritual (if there can be such a thing as merely spiritual)? Does it really matter, or is it all just word play? God/dess, I know, is much greater than all of this, but we humans aren't. Being a writer, part of knowledge for me is having the proper descriptor in place. The right word can build understanding, and working through these questions is one more way to understand myself. Paradoxically, it's also a way to help me greater understand God/dess and how we relate.

spirituality, religion