Here we compare our beliefs with those in the 12 most popular world religions (with the contentiously approximate number of believers, in millions, in parentheses). For our purposes, there should be enough wisdom in this list to keep us busy for a while, regardless of where exactly each of these belief systems actually sits in the ranking, or why.

 

Christianity (2,100)

Islam (1,500)

Hinduism (900)

Buddhism (450)

Taoism (400)

Confucianism (400)

Shinto (50)

Sikhism (26)

Judaism (16)

Jainism (10)

Bahá'í (7)

Humanism (5)

 

We can also compare EBS to philosophical systems that are not religious.

 

NeuroPhilosophy

Cartesian Dualism

 

There is a "spiritual belief system selector" on SelectSmart.com. On the basis of your answers to 20 questions, it will tell you which belief system is the most similiar to your views. (This is a really cool idea!) When given answers consistent with EBS, the following results were returned. Of course, brief questions that are tests of faith are always tricky, since they can be answered differently depending on the interpretation of the questions. It would be interesting to see how the results might vary if the questions were interpreted differently. Also, it would be a mistake to think that there is little utility in studying systems showing little agreement. For example, EBS "seems" to have little in common with Judaism, when there are actually strong parallels (in the conception of an abstract deity, embodied in nature, and where God's laws are absolute and permanent). Of the Abrahamic faiths, EBS has the most in common with Early Judaism, even if we fail a few of the tests of faith.

 

Relative Agreement with Other Systems

 

The SelectSmart authors found it useful to compare belief systems on the basis of the differences in their treatment of the following topics, so here we supply the EBS answers to such questions, to better identify our position.

 

EBS Tenets (by the SelectSmart Criteria)