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Your Ideal Religion
With all this talk of atheism and the meaning of religion recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ideal religion. Whatever that means… What does that mean to you? What do you wish religion was or contained? What would it look like, smell like, sound like? How would it’s followers act? What would its sacred stories, teachings and philosophies be? Is the ideal religion no religion? If you could make your own religion, what would it be? (PS. You can!) What are the dangers or drawbacks to making your own religion? Have you tried?
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November 30th, 2005 at 6:30 pm
my ideal religion is one where i`m passionate about the process of being involved in it`s activities. soccer, for instance, or music or hiking in the hills on a foggy afternoon. my ideal religion would be invisible as a religion. to be in it would be purely an activity of transcendence.
the danger of developing and administrating an emerging religion is that it has the potential for becoming a guru cult, where hierarchies are established, secrets are kept and mindcontrol is the order of the day. y`know, pretty much like all religions do.
it is ironic that the established religions are the one`s who are most bought into those mechanisms and are quickest to accuse others of precisely those actions.
i don`t personally wish religion was anything else that that which it is. i would like to see more emerging transcendant societies or sects, where individual, personal growth and divinity was the order of the day but i can`t see that happening until people become a little more responsible for thier own actions. this falls into the debate over rights vs. responsibilities in all facets of our lives.
what are the mechanisms that reward us for taking more responsibility in our lives?
November 30th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
I think Buddhism as religion has it about right- a religion which believes in no afterlife, soul, or God it is all about being in a state of meditation. A state in which there is no conflict with belief.
But since life and reality is so deep, wide, vast, creative you have to feel wonder and have reverence for it. I like a syncretist notion of God. I think the pantheism of Native Americans is beautiful with thier Great Spirit.
It’s almost like the Tao manifesting itself in everything.
I also really like Jiddu Krishnamurti who said “‘You are depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else…. No man from outside can make you free….. No one holds the Key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of Eternity”
November 30th, 2005 at 7:15 pm
Everyone would worship me as a god. Those who didn’t would be promptly executed with a jagged edged guillotine. Anyone who ever conjured up one negative thought about me would be tracked down by information sent out from thought chips sent out from that person’s brain. Those chips would be mandatory for the entire world’s population.
November 30th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
OK, that does it for me. Mark is trolling. And doing it very well!
“Don’t feed the trolls.”
November 30th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
mark is merely expressing the wishes of most religions and governments. i have a rumanian friend who tells stories of hiding from the police, not because they had done something wrong, but because it was just best to stay out of thier way. kinda like small town cops in rural america. the return of the highwayman.
November 30th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
My ideal religion would incorporate all the positive (or at least what I believe to positive) facets of many religions, including:
The Compassion seen in Christ
The all-pervading unity of Taoism
The transcendent journey of shamanism
The pursuit of knowledge as found in gnosticism
The “magick” or psychic rituals and techniques found in “occultic” religions
The calcuated and careful use of mind-expanding substances and techniques (like sensory deprivation)
The routine use of meditation as found in the Yogis of the east.
And finally, the FAITH in self (athiesm, agnosticism), as well as FAITH in the SELF
So yes, my religion would be very mystical, but very satisfying for me.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
I just found this the other day, something I wrote like five years ago for my anthropology of religion class. We had to write up an outline for our own religion. and though I don’t know if I still like this idea, it’s strange to see how a couple of these things are still relevant and my life and still being built upon (the whole internet medium / trash strata shit for instance).
I’ll reproduce it here:
The Nystagmus (”a rapid involuntary oscillation of the eyeballs (as from dizziness)”) [I have no idea where I found this word!?!?]
1. The Nystagmus
A. Would embrace gaudiness -
a) neon/plaid colors
b)perhaps tacky religious figures from other faiths - “the meaning behind divinty seen in a car-freshner Jesus, or a Buddha comb, ” (etc.)
B. Be mainly internet based (homepage, chat rooms, messageboards) with some local temples for periodic group meetings.
II. Beliefs (optional)
a. find humor in conventional attitudes towards the sacred.
b. find sacredness in the profane.
c holiness with infantile behaviors
d. the ability to return (or keep firm) to that which is orginally considered sacred (traditional faiths) as well.
e. no set rules, no absolutes and at the sime time extreme absolutes.
f. emphasis on paradox (see “ii, f”)
g. finding divinity with the odd
h. individual choice in what to believe - find community with people who move back and forth within the arenas of scared and profane, and from people who hodge podge their faith, or who conversly stick to one path.
j. the internet provides for a disembodied voice, which can be as psuedonymnous and contradictoy as one pleases.
k. confusion is a virtue.
III. Rituals (optional)
a) unconventional ways: romantic personal ads, airplane banners, bathroom stall graffiti, shouting out car windows on the free-way, etc.
V. Exclude:
a) anyone willing to join would not be excluded
VI. Life Questions:
a) there is a time for the sacred and a time for the profane.
b ) perhaps groups vote on which rules will become part of scripture, but indivudals will be the ones to deem which rules will be sacred and which will be profane.
c) ultimate concern for the individual no matter if it conforms or opposes the group sentiment.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:59 pm
I think the best religion would be one where you would continually participate in it and apply it’s lessons/teachings in your day-to-day life where you’d see tangible, immediate results. Kinda like Hogwarts, I suppose. The people in that world live and breathe their “religion”, which of course is magic. And what is magic but manifesting change by willing it? This power is the ultimate transcendental experience of the Divine and I can see no other reason for a religion to exist unless it delivers real results in an effective manner. Sharing beliefs and faith, uniting like-minds, and feeling a sense of community are all well and good for most religions, but what is the point, really? In terms of the individual self-improvement.
I need a religion that’s more like a school, where new ideas and thoughts that actually affect my physical reality can be learned and mastered over a period time. This way you can actually see the progress you’re making and where your weaknesses are, and thus devote your time and energy to the areas you most need to focus on. This “religion” would be fun, practical, and infinitely rewarding. . and I curse Yaldabaoth daily for making me a god damn muggle!
December 1st, 2005 at 12:44 am
Garrett - that list was really great.
Pete - I really like the idea of being able to somehow “know where you stand” in all of this - self-assessment. I think thats a major part of why many occult groups have rankings. It’s not a matter of enforcing rigorous hierarchies all the time, but a way for people to know where they are at, what to expect and a defined order of doing things. Maybe some people find that constraining, but I can imagine it also being liberating in a way.
December 1st, 2005 at 12:38 pm
I’m going to have to totally agree with Pete.
I think the keyword for defining what would comprise an ideal religion is definitely “tangibility.”
December 1st, 2005 at 1:32 pm
You know what I was just thinking… people use terms like “cult marketing” and often compare various brand name affiliations that people have to near religious belief. I wonder if and when a major corporation will quit pussyfooting around and actually form a fully-fledged religion?
I mean, Scientology is kind of close to being a corporate religion. Or closer than anything else I can think of. But how crazy would that be if companies instead of just having like a sort of de facto consumerist religion banded together and created rituals, theology, symbolism, the whole nine yards?
December 1st, 2005 at 3:45 pm
I think it would be death of culture. The corporation was initially conceived to serve the people. Then it became an entity unto itself with the 13th ammendment. Now the corporations heavily influence government and money (the mind and body of society) in a greedy, tyrannical way. If corporations created religion(s), the masses of humanity would become indentured servants to an entity that was initially conceived to serve the people (much like “democracy”!), and I would lose almost all faith in the ability of society to recover it’s individual identity. Furthermore, with the money, power, and control a full-fledged religion would give corporations, it would not be out of the realm of probabilty to see society plunging back into the dark ages.
Needless to say, I don’t like the idea of a corporate religion, and I already dislike the traps of consumerism.
December 1st, 2005 at 4:35 pm
What Pete said. Seriously - took the words right out of my brain.
A religion for me would be a way of life, and the concept of “God” would simply be the acceptance of ’some’ higher intelligence, in the sense that there are higher and higher levels of intelligence already apparent in our physical world, and who are we to assume that our little human brains represent the highest?
All kinds of concepts and creative approaches could be openly explored between like-minded individuals, but the emphasis would be on those concepts most useful towards improving the quality of life of all involved.
There would be “Mind-control” - but more in the Robert Anton Wilson sense - learning to gain greater and greater control over one’s OWN mind, while continually lessening control of it by outside forces.
There would not be over-emphasis, or negation, of any aspect of life or the self. “Holistic” success would be the basic aim. Material success would not be placed above or below Spiritual ’success’ (whatever that would consist of for the individual), for example. Individuality would be balanced with unity, etc, etc… The balance principle being essential - though not worshipped. Imbalance being ‘balanced’ with Balance as it were. And I think I better come back to this discussion after more coffee. I feel myself losing my train of thought.
Basically go back to Pete’s post. He summed it up better in the first place.
Though Mark’s idea has a certain appeal all its own….
December 1st, 2005 at 9:38 pm
I have developed my own religion. The point is, it is MY religion that works for me.
December 1st, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Sounds like the Jedi to me
Specifically, the ones in the books set after the movies, where Luke reforms the Jedi Order. I also think it would be possible to recreate a “real” Jedi religion (minus the lightsaber 
), combining various eastern philosophies and practices (like Tai-Chi and other inner martial arts) with “occidental” traditions, like magick. Sprinkle in some shamanism, and you’ve got yourself a Jedi religion.
Also check these guys out, The Nogardian Knights.
Interesting
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:17 pm
My ideal religion would have:
(1) Techniques for achieving gnosis. Direct experience of the Spirit would be one of its goals.
(2) A robust yet flexible mythological/conceptual framework to help the adherent deal with the gnosis once it arrives.
(3) Self-organized non-hierarchical communities. Of necessity, these communities would remain somewhat small, so as to not calcify into Archonic control structures. Communities can avail themselves of worldwide networking online and at occasional conferences to share ideas and create greater community. But there would be no nationally-agreed-upon rules or charters.