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Is Every Possible Idea Already Taken?

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
This is going to be a different type of thread.

When I created the idea of Exaltism, I thought it was novel, new, fresh, until I realized that many religions incorporate their own exaltist attitudes and some religions, specifically those of the transhumanist origin - Syntheism, Terasem, Earthseed, to name just a few, not only incorporate it into their religion, but their driving force and main point is focused directly on the exaltation of nature. Teilhard popularized it over 50 years ago into the Catholic tradition, incorporating a striking Christian element to it that I've adapted partially into my own practice.

So, this question isn't to ask what is IN religion, but more specifically, what is left out. With thousands of traditions worldwide and an idea of divinity that is different for each and every individual, is every idea that could possibly be already been taken? I get that more people will be created, new religions will emerge from that and new ideas will constantly spread forth from that. But, be honest with me - can you name an idea that hasn't already been taken from by some religion, whether it be from an established religion or a new religious movement?

My problem wasn't that there wasn't religions that espouse my beliefs - there's plenty of them now that I've properly looked for them, it's that the movement is very splintered and the collective whole of religious and spiritual transhumanists worldwide is probably about ten thousand people altogether. And just like the Baha'i Faith you can find them in almost any country, so there isn't a focal point I can focus on. Many spiritual transhumanists are online, and I've met a considerable amount of them, both as leaders and followers.

I get the fact that much of religion is made up and people can make stuff up like an elaborate lore they claim is true. But they're going to have to incorporate some ideas from some religions that already exist to build some foundation, a base, for their ideas. @Eddi came with up a really new and novel idea by basically adopting the idea of The Matrix into a religion. He's now a Christian Methodist and no longer believes the same. But I've been searching for new and unique religions with different ideas and his idea seemed to me to be the most novel that I have come across - although I don't and have never believed in it.

Religion is an old idea that seems to have been replaced by secularism. People no longer fear religious law but now fear breaking political law instead, because there's consequences to doing so. Almost every institution that religion once held is now being replaced by technology and the scientific method. Religious and spiritual transhumanism tends to take that evolving technology and claim that some part of that is divine. And there's at least half a dozen movements that firmly believe in something like this, ones that I've come across anyway. They are all very similar but use different language to express the same sentiments.

TL;DR - Is there a religious or spiritual idea out there that hasn't already been taken? Are the agnostics right by saying that humans don't or can't understand the true meanings behind God, the afterlife and the meaning of life? Is it possible that all current religions are incorrect and an idea in the future will create the correct religion? Do you ever feel like your spiritual concepts don't have a religion to call home and you end up drifting towards non-creedal religions despite having a personal credo?

According to Wikipedia there are 4,200 religions. With that number of religions, is it still possible to create a new and novel idea? Let us know what you think below. :)
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
I'm sure it's on the web somewhere.

Ka ching!
They may not call him Charles but ancient people did worship a spider God.
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lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
TL;DR - Is there a religious or spiritual idea out there that hasn't already been taken? Are the agnostics right by saying that humans don't or can't understand the true meanings behind God, the afterlife and the meaning of life? Is it possible that all current religions are incorrect and an idea in the future will create the correct religion? Do you ever feel like your spiritual concepts don't have a religion to call home and you end up drifting towards non-creedal religions despite having a personal credo?

According to Wikipedia there are 4,200 religions. With that number of religions, is it still possible to create a new and novel idea? Let us know what you think below. :)
Yes, there is a religious or spiritual idea out there that hasn't already been taken. I have no idea what it is, but consider...


My point here isn't to be specific about what a new religion or spiritual idea may be. Rather, I'm pointing out a number of religious, or pseud-religious beliefs that weren't possible until somewhat recently, as they are based on various aspects of modern culture, technology, or personality. So...I have little doubt that future tech, or future people will lead to new spiritual and religious beliefs. Alien contact would almost certainly do so. Syncretic belief systems will continue combining the huge number of religions you've identified in new and...erm...inventive ways.

Heck, we don't even have a syncretic blending of Islam and Scientology yet, and that's just begging someone to discover it, surely...ahem...
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Religion isn't an old idea - it's a very modern, Western construct. What it actually describes is old, but a lot of the really old religion is ironically not circumscribed by how most understand religion in the contemporary world. So the problem you are noticing is mostly self-constructed - it exists because you artifice "religion" to mean this but not that, to look like this but not look like that, and so on. And also, probably, because you decided ideas are a thing that can be "taken" somehow. What jar do you put these "taken" ideas in? With what hands do you grasp them and keep them from flowing where they will? Can you "take" the air also?
 

Exaltist Ethan

Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
Religion isn't an old idea - it's a very modern, Western construct. What it actually describes is old, but a lot of the really old religion is ironically not circumscribed by how most understand religion in the contemporary world. So the problem you are noticing is mostly self-constructed - it exists because you artifice "religion" to mean this but not that, to look like this but not look like that, and so on. And also, probably, because you decided ideas are a thing that can be "taken" somehow. What jar do you put these "taken" ideas in? With what hands do you grasp them and keep them from flowing where they will? Can you "take" the air also?
It wasn't a problem, it was an observation. And yes, I know, that if you change the wording even a little, you can create a new religion from that. Like Charles the God-Spider rather than Collud the God-Spider. But it just seems that every possible concept of religion is already taken if you know how to look for that religion. In fact, if anything, this observation has been a solution for me, because once I discovered Earthseed I no longer had to use my own terminology to know and understand God. There is truth however that "you can't know what you don't know." Maybe the limits of my imagination are somewhat limited. If anything, that is the real problem here, not the fact that seems to be an endless amount of unique religions.
 

Sedim Haba

Outa here... bye-bye!
This is going to be a different type of thread.

...

TL;DR - Is there a religious or spiritual idea out there that hasn't already been taken? Are the agnostics right by saying that humans don't or can't understand the true meanings behind God, the afterlife and the meaning of life? Is it possible that all current religions are incorrect and an idea in the future will create the correct religion? Do you ever feel like your spiritual concepts don't have a religion to call home and you end up drifting towards non-creedal religions despite having a personal credo?

Yes. There is no religion that holds the same idea I have. Deism comes close, but has a significant difference.
 

Sedim Haba

Outa here... bye-bye!
I wonder if you just told us what you believe if one of us could find a religion similar to it.
Sure, just wanted to avoid debate in a non-debate forum.

"Deism is the belief in the existence of God, specifically in a creator who does not intervene in the universe after creating it"

My 'Deism' is the the belief in a creator G-d that was highly involved in human affairs, but is not any longer, and has effectively gone away.
 

mikkel_the_dane

My own religion
...

TL;DR - Is there a religious or spiritual idea out there that hasn't already been taken? Are the agnostics right by saying that humans don't or can't understand the true meanings behind God, the afterlife and the meaning of life? Is it possible that all current religions are incorrect and an idea in the future will create the correct religion? Do you ever feel like your spiritual concepts don't have a religion to call home and you end up drifting towards non-creedal religions despite having a personal credo?

According to Wikipedia there are 4,200 religions. With that number of religions, is it still possible to create a new and novel idea? Let us know what you think below. :)
Are the agnostics right by saying that humans don't or can't understand the true meanings behind God, the afterlife and the meaning of life?

We don't even know that as agnostics. Here is the problem in general terms. I am certain as me as an agnostic that I can't know God, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't know God. It just means that you don't act like a God as say all knowing. So in principle you could know God, but from my point of view, I doubt knowing God, because to me I have to be God to know that there is a God.
So you believe you can know God as you believe that.
But for the rest of us unless we believe exactly like you, we in effect believe differently. So it is in practice subjective, but that doesn't rule out that you could know God. But I can't answer if you do or not.
Hope that clarifies something. :)
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
I know, that if you change the wording even a little, you can create a new religion from that. Like Charles the God-Spider rather than Collud the God-Spider. But it just seems that every possible concept of religion is already taken if you know how to look for that religion.
How does changing words make something a new religion? What makes something go into religion box A and not religion box B? What does it mean for something to be "taken" in box A but not box B, and who decides what goes in which boxes? Why does the modern, Western concept of religion insist upon putting religions into boxes to begin with and does this accurately describe the territory or is it an artifice? Or a bit of both?

There's no "correct" answer to that question in my view, but it's worth considering the underlying assumptions that lead to particular conclusions.
 
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