Nancy asked:

How does one go about selecting a religion? Even though I attend a Methodist church, I do not feel it
is right for me. I am looking at some of the non-christian alternatives — pagan, gnostic, wicca, new
age and scientology. I was hoping there would be a quiz or survey that you could take to show in
what direction your beliefs ran and then match a religion based on that result.

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I have never heard of a quiz or survey that could help you select a religion to follow, but you could ask
yourself the following questions:

What do you dislike about Methodism? Are there also things you like about it?

Are religions the kind of thing you can just pick and choose to suit your taste, like sweeties? Not
everyone would think so. Some people think it is worth going to war to uphold the one true religion.
Your answer to this will depend on whether you think all religions ultimately have the same aim,
whether you think all religions ultimately venerate the same deity/ power, and whether you think a
religion tells you the truth about the world, or is just a way of living your life in a good way.

What would make a religion 'right' for you? If you enjoyed taking part in its practices? If it made you
feel peaceful and happy? Or if it challenged your thinking and beliefs?

It's interesting that, among the alternatives to Christianity, you do not include any other major world
religions. Why not? Would you not consider Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, or Hinduism?

It sounds to me as though you are more in search of a 'personal spiritual quest' — that is, trying to
find your own individual way to spiritual truths — rather than looking for an organized religion. The
personal spiritual journey need not take place within any one religion. If you are interested in
comparing different religions, perhaps philosophy would suit your purpose just as well! You are
unlikely to find any one religion that you like in all its aspects. Have a look at
www.comparativereligion.comwhich has a lot of information about this sort of thing.

Katharine Hunt

Want a quiz to choose a religion? There is a rather ingenious on-line one in the engagingly-titled
'Belief-O-Matic' at http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html. It tells me that I'm 70 per
cent Unitarian, which is probably about right, so I hope it will be useful for you.

But is that the way to go about choosing a religion? Most people, it seems, don't actually choose a
religion, but have one thrust on them from infancy. And why? Not usually from their parent's having
carefully weighed up the rights and the wrongs of the faith. More often because their great-great-great
grandparents were told by some ancient grandee that they'd jolly well better follow His religion, unless
they want to be at least out of a job, or dead. And so they pretend to believe, and pretend to their
children and they to theirs, and so on. This doesn't sound a very reasoned way to get into a religion
does it?

But, hold on a moment. Like it or not, humans are pack animals. It is mandated on us that we belong
to groups, and to think of ourselves as part of the gang. Religions are gangs, and they are, in many
ways, gangs just like the sporting club or the school or the family. Religions have to be, are in their
definition, not so much groups of ideas but groups of people. Like other groups they are defined as
much by being 'not the other lot' as by anything they themselves are. After all, a religion of one
person would not be a religion, it would be an opinion. There is no shame in this, it is the way we are,
and the way we must be.

So, Nancy, I do hope you won't just look for a religion just by analysing what it says, but by who it is
made of. Whichever religious group you settle on, you're going to have to bite your lip over a good
few of their pronouncements anyway, so what does it matter if you dispute one tenet or a thousand?
Go to the mosque and the temple and the church. Ask and listen, you will grow in understanding and,
perhaps, you will find the right people for you. It is the people who matter.

Glyn Hughes