Halcyon
Lord of the Badgers
Although it is debatable that all religions are the product of someone's fantasies, afterall many can often be traced back to a single individual, are some more valid / more respectable than others? Is it more acceptable to believe in one faith over another because of the age or the following the former has?
For example, people often scoff at the followers of Jediism - this presumably is because people cannot take the beliefs of Jedi followers seriously because the genesis of the religion came from the mind of a man named George Lucas, and was introduced to the world through the medium of science fiction films.
On the other hand followers of the Abrahamic faiths are for some reason treated with more respect, like their religions' foundations somehow make them more viable, more possible? This goes for most other religions; Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism - when someone says they are a Hindu or a Jew or a Christian, people will (usually) respect their faith. If someone says they are a Jedi they will be laughed at.
Is it fair to say Wicca had this problem to begin with? I mean it did initially begin with Gerald Gardner, sure he studied the ways of British witches, but he also altered them in order to form today's modern Wicca, and ever since people have altered Wicca to suit their individual needs (something that i think is perhaps its most admirable quality). In the early years i imagine Wiccans were scoffed at, but today it is receiving greater recognition and acceptance - because it is gaining in age. Is it necessary for a religion to have a few decades or centuries under its belt before it it is worthy of respect? Will Jediism ever be respected as a valid religious persuasion?
Now to the main point of this thread;
If i were to invent my own religion, more than just being eclectic and choosing the bits i feel best about from other religions and building it that way, but actually build it from the ground up - write a mythology, create and realise a deity or multiple deities, generate rituals, prayers, religious practices and moral codes. If i were to do this my religion would not be respected, surely i would be thought of as a little strange? Yet people believe what could very easily be the imaginative ramblings of a preacher from Nazareth and others the word of a merchant from Mecca. People could say "But these men were sent from God, they were divinely inspired!" According to whom? Whose to say my religious ideas are not sent from God?
So what do you think? Can a person invent their own religion and ever have their beliefs respected? Do you know anybody that has done so?
Will there one day be religions whose 'prophets' include St. Luke Skywalker, and Paul "Mua'dib" Atreides? Or does a religion have to be hundreds/thousands of years old(preferably with fuzzy origins) in order to be classed as a valid spiritual choice?
Only serious responses please.
For example, people often scoff at the followers of Jediism - this presumably is because people cannot take the beliefs of Jedi followers seriously because the genesis of the religion came from the mind of a man named George Lucas, and was introduced to the world through the medium of science fiction films.
On the other hand followers of the Abrahamic faiths are for some reason treated with more respect, like their religions' foundations somehow make them more viable, more possible? This goes for most other religions; Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism - when someone says they are a Hindu or a Jew or a Christian, people will (usually) respect their faith. If someone says they are a Jedi they will be laughed at.
Is it fair to say Wicca had this problem to begin with? I mean it did initially begin with Gerald Gardner, sure he studied the ways of British witches, but he also altered them in order to form today's modern Wicca, and ever since people have altered Wicca to suit their individual needs (something that i think is perhaps its most admirable quality). In the early years i imagine Wiccans were scoffed at, but today it is receiving greater recognition and acceptance - because it is gaining in age. Is it necessary for a religion to have a few decades or centuries under its belt before it it is worthy of respect? Will Jediism ever be respected as a valid religious persuasion?
Now to the main point of this thread;
If i were to invent my own religion, more than just being eclectic and choosing the bits i feel best about from other religions and building it that way, but actually build it from the ground up - write a mythology, create and realise a deity or multiple deities, generate rituals, prayers, religious practices and moral codes. If i were to do this my religion would not be respected, surely i would be thought of as a little strange? Yet people believe what could very easily be the imaginative ramblings of a preacher from Nazareth and others the word of a merchant from Mecca. People could say "But these men were sent from God, they were divinely inspired!" According to whom? Whose to say my religious ideas are not sent from God?
So what do you think? Can a person invent their own religion and ever have their beliefs respected? Do you know anybody that has done so?
Will there one day be religions whose 'prophets' include St. Luke Skywalker, and Paul "Mua'dib" Atreides? Or does a religion have to be hundreds/thousands of years old(preferably with fuzzy origins) in order to be classed as a valid spiritual choice?
Only serious responses please.
