Hay? Hey! I Resemble That Remark!

Deb Roby wondered who else might take the "what kind of humanist are you?" quiz. I'll admit I almost didn't, because my off-the-cuff answer would be "none". I don't consider myself a humanist, as I understand the term**. But y'all know I have trouble resisting quizzes. [grin] So off I went to give it a shot. A couple of the questions were most definitely directed at a segment of people who have a different philosophy about life and spirituality than I do and didn't really have a "correct" answer for me, so on those I just had to choose the response I disagreed with least. But a majority of the questions had more to do with life in general and/or politics rather than theology and on those there was usually an answer I could agree with more enthusiastically. And the questions were all a lot more interesting than the typical "choose a color" stuff so many quizzes have! So here are my results. Do I think those results describe the real, complete me accurately? Nope. But do I think the results describe a facet of me accurately? You betcha! Here's what they had to say:

Haymaker

You are one of life's enjoyers, determined to get the most you can out of your brief spell on Earth. Probably what first attracted you to atheism was the prospect of liberation from the Ten Commandments, few of which are compatible with a life of pleasure. You play hard and work quite hard, have a strong sense of loyalty and a relaxed but consistent approach to your philosophy. You can't see the point of abstract principles and probably wouldn't lay down your life for a concept, though you might for a friend. Something of a champagne humanist, you admire George Bernard Shaw for his cheerful agnosticism and pursuit of sensual rewards and your Hollywood hero is Marlon Brando, who was beautiful, irascible and aimed for goodness in his own tortured way. Sometimes you might be tempted to allow your own pleasures to take precedence over your ethics. But everyone is striving for that elusive balance between the good and the happy life. You'd probably open another bottle and say there's no contest. What kind of humanist are you? **I won't swear my understanding of the term "humanist" is correct, but I think of it as meaning someone who rejects both organized religion and the supernatural, and who follows the idea that we live one life, in a world governed by provable scientific principles, and then we die and that's that - we're cease to exist except in the memories of our family and friends. While I have chosen to step away from organized religion in my life, I'm not an atheist. I believe in the Divine (call it "God" for lack of another name, but I don't mean quite the same thing by that name as I would have when I was growing up in the Baptist church), and I think there's a LOT more to people and to the universe than we can even begin to understand right now with our current level of scientific knowledge. I think there are things that seem "supernatural" to us right now because we simply don't understand them yet. Maybe someday we will. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy...." pretty much says it for me. Besides, if anyone needs proof that God exists, just take a look at this sign: Hard to argue with that, yes? :-) PS....no offense intended. In my world view, God would think that was funny. PPS....I see Gabrielle is a Haymaker too. Gabrielle, girlfriend, we really need to get together in person one of these days and party!