Creating Your Own Religion...

[Conquistador]

Has anyone tried? I'm just wondering since I am in the process of doing that myself.

[Ederico]

I have not tried, but I would like to, but not to create a following, just as a personal faith, though the strength of communal belief would be good.

[Loki]

Originally posted by Iovvs Optimvs Maximvs
I have not tried, but I would like to, but not to create a following, just as a personal faith, though the strength of communal belief would be good.

This is an interesting idea.

I believe Homo sapiens has evolved to have a spiritual aspect or function. This we commonly equate as being the "soul" or "spirit". But in reality is caused by brain functions, I believe. In this we are far ahead of other primates.

Now that most people (in Europe for that matter) have binned organised religion as a serious option, this idea of yours sounds like a genuine option.

In conclusion - I believe the religious illusions we have come to accept as manifestations of God's interaction with us, is seemingly only a process of our own minds, and thus is not a reality. But... in our highly evolved mental biological makeup, there would still be a void - a condition where we crave religion. We are born like that, since our ancestors have been religious for thousands of years, and it has become part of us. So we could create the religion we fancy to be an authentic expression of our characters and ethnicity to fill the void - not necessarily believing in a deity or deities, but rather as a life philosophy.

Herein I would recommend drawing from the religions of our tribal past for guidance and ideas, and just expand on that or personalize it to suit our modern environment.

Loki

[Ederico]

Do you have any particular beliefs that could evolve into a Faith?

[Loki]

Originally posted by Iovvs Optimvs Maximvs
Do you have any particular beliefs that could evolve into a Faith?

I would say a basic framework of important ideas can be made. Then the rest is really a matter of taste.

For example :

- a moral code (can be as rigid as you would like it to be) involving sexual conduct

- areas of responsibility - namely racial loyalty, family loyalty, sense of community and involvement therein

- basig dogma, i.e. racial science, hygiene, principles and knowledge of maintaining a healthy body; could involve specific diets to be followed; mind stimulation, etc

- subject (or object) of worship is optional; could include symbolic deity/deities e.g. Germanic gods

- rituals are also optional, and could even involve yoga-type bodily exercise or ritual

- "spiritual" comprehension; realisation of a higher dimension; includes attempt to experience something higher. i.e. enlightenment


Loki

[Evolved]

Yes, I did this at a young age. Having an atheist upbringing helped a lot, since I was not tainted by any Semitic notions of who or what God is, etc. I made friends with these extreme Evangelical neighbor kids whose family thought my parents were child molesting Satan worshippers (LOL they never met my parents, they only knew we didn't go to church and had a lot of black cats. Real "Love thy neighbor" unjudgemental Christians.. eyes

My homemade religion was pretty simple, with a Sun God and a Moon God. Every person, animal, and object has a spirit (animism). Just something organic from my own imagination, maybe even written into my DNA from shaman ancestors.

Having your own religion is great, there's no collection plate and you can sleep in on Sunday.

[Ederico]

If I shaped my own Faith it would have a Pantheistic and Deistic approach. The Monotheist/Polytheist question is yet unanswered, I see all Creation of the work of one God yet I believe that humans express within them the characteristics of various Gods/Forces which serve as Archetypes. I even considered having Higher and Lower Gods, with the Higher Gods actually being one God creator of all including the Lower Gods with which we have contact and who shape our lives as forces within our person.

In the Relgion Test found in this thread : http://www.forums.skadi.net/showthre...&threadid=2973 I got Hinduism and Orthodox Judaism, I do not know how to explain the Hinduism aspect, but the Orthodox Judaism could be explained because I believe in definite moral guidelines with which to live.

[Loki]

Originally posted by Iovvs Optimvs Maximvs
I even considered having Higher and Lower Gods, with the Higher Gods actually being one God creator of all including the Lower Gods with which we have contact and who shape our lives as forces within our person.

Some of the early Christians even believed in something similar. When confronted by the obvious differences in the god of the Old Testament and the god of the New Testament, they concluded that Jesus was a different, and higher god than the OT's Yahweh, and had subsequently replaced him as the ruling god of the earth - the true creator. These beliefs soon died out when these believers were branded heretics by bishops.

[Loki]

Originally posted by ladygoeth33

Having your own religion is great, there's no collection plate and you can sleep in on Sunday.

Very interesting. Do you still believe in/follow this religion you created? Or was it merely a childhood experiment?

[Allenson]

Originally posted by Conquistador
Has anyone tried? I'm just wondering since I am in the process of doing that myself.

Not so much a defined religion but I have certainly developed my own spirituality and belief system as I live along.

I venerate ancestors and nature and to me they are the "holiest" of all things.

I was raised not in an atheist home but instead just a secular one....but it still allowed me the mental freedom to roam where I may spiritually and not be bogged down by the "near-Jew" (christianity) dogma.