For what ever reason I've come up with an exercise that I've no doubt has been done before(by people with far better skills in writing as well!), yet I'm interested in trying myself...I'd like to create a religion. No, not a functioning system of belief and/or worship, but just the very bare bones of what could pass as an actual religion. The thing is, I want collaborators. I've no interest in what one's actual beliefs are(being irrelevant with creating new ones and all) nor do I have any intentions of doing such for the sake of satire, lampooning, criticism, or what-have-you. So what are we looking for in creating a new religion? I think it's a bit up in the air and may require some actual study, so I'm not really sure. That's why I want collaborators. I'm leaning towards something in a similar vein to how Christianity has evolved over the centuries with multiple books by multiple authors(another reason for the collaboration dealie) but again, I'm just not sure. A lack of consensus and disagreements would probably be a good thing than having a completely unified group for this, I imagine. Naturally, given the blatantly controversial and subjective nature of such an exercise I have no intentions of having it done here. Most likely it'll just be on some free message board/forum dealie since those can be pretty easily set up and serve as something of a neutral ground. As a reminder though: the purpose isn't to push any beliefs off as better than others or disprove one over the other, it's just a thought exercise. Possibly one a little bit more long-term than a lot of things on teh intrawebz, I'm thinking 2-3 months of brainstorming and posting random crap sounds good. Anybody interested in doing this? You can hit me up on XBL at any time, it's the same as my user name here exactly.
seems like an odd thing to do for fun (sounds too close to work, yet most things that are fun do come close to work). i would if i had more time, in other words. idk, ill look into it...
Real religion, if there is such a thing, is a bit too make-believe for me. I never understood the appeal in religions that are completely false from the start.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOLCat_Bib ... on_Project of course there is no flying spagetti monster. in the beginning, there was ceiling cat, and he sent his son, happy cat, to ammend for our sins, and if we dont believe in him, then we will be sent to the basement to remain in eternal darkness with basement cat. seriously, we are going to start some kind of rage-arguement with people who are religion-sensitive here. or does nobody here feel that sensitive with what you or others believe or dont believe. if so, then no prob. cuz it truely makes as much sense for some not to believe, as it does for others to believe. if it cant be proven or disproven, that means its personal oppinion.
Here in the UK 390,000 are officially recognised as followers of the Jedi religion, after the 2001 census. :shock: Just give it a name & a list of rules. Isn't that all a religion is anyway? I'll leave it at that cos over here certain religions are VERY touchy if you make your feelings known.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Hatred_Bill in one hand, im glad they dont enforce beliefs and limit opinions and speech over here. in another, some people just need their speech limited (like that book burning threat which tried messing with american supporting muslims who happen to have a mosque near the former world trade center). too bad we cant catergorize the failures at being civil thoughtful understanding human beings, and give them a certain set of laws preventing them from starting stupid crap about something they know nothing about. first off, you dont spell qur'an "koran". then everyone else who knows what they are talking about, are allowed to. sucks how, when someone needs their hand held by the government, that everyone ends up being guided by it (when they dont need it, the other idiot did)
:roll: Well, the idea wasn't to have a debate about whether a/any religion is/is not correct but just the idea of making one as a(theoretically) fun thought exercise. Christianity comes to my mind as the first potential model because I know it fairly well for someone that's never really followed it(in my ignorant opinion anyways). I like how it's loaded down with lots of books by multiple authors(John, Isaiah, the Psalms, and so on), how it's changed in various ways over its two millennia-plus history, it's part of a larger branch of monotheism(being one of the big three of the Judaic branch of belief), has a good messianic figure, a rich tradition, and has changed quite a bit since it's inception(such as only higher-ups within the Catholic church having access to the actual holy book due to most people not knowing Latin for the longest time or how said holy book is interpreted in a myriad of ways). Elements of other belief systems(both obsolete and current) would be great to include as well, I imagine. Nobody thinks it could be interesting to try, really? Also just for the lulz: had someone on XBL tell me I sound like L. Ron Hubbard :roll: &#$% it. I'm going to go ahead and make a board for it. I'd really, really like some people to collaborate with though; especially someone that actually has faith. It'd be refreshing for a cynical bastard like me :roll:
All right, so I set up a board for this crap in case anyone's interested in trying it...Peacefully Here you go: http://z15.invisionfree.com/Religionism
I've already hit a brick wall. I think I've got a pretty good idea of how the main prophet/messiah character should be, but the big cheese itself...That's a bit of a tough nut to crack. I can't come up with the right balance :|
