One of the unexpected benefits of participating in BookTalk is learning about new religions. BookTalk has discussed Mormonism, which is less than 200 years old and of course we're beginning to discuss Scientology, which has been around only for about 60 years. One of the religions I was previously totally unaware of is evangelical atheism. Three more fresh ones are the religions of climate change, Darwinism, and Scientism.

All of this must have been on my mind as I shopped for sunscreen and noticed a high-grade product has the slogan "Worship Your Skin (Tm)". Of course I decided that's exactly what I must do. I immediately purchased the product and now in addition to all my activities with the other new religions above, I have indeed begun to worship my own epidermis, petitioning it through prayer for healing, beauty, and protection. I must say the results have been absolutely faaaabulous!

This makes me wonder just how many other new religions and cults are lurking just beneath the surface, hidden in coded marketing campaigns, political crusades, TV shows, music, and who knows where else. Can you identify any more new religions?

Give me that new time religion!

Not yet, but I'm working on it.

Here's a possible new religion. Let's overtly make Him up as we go along!

This God is definitely no relation to the loving, comforting, guiding God of the Abrahamic religions. Rather, Abrams says, the real God worthy of our attention is an “emergent force” generated by the collective consciousness of human beings. As she sees it, God is the “collective of our (best) aspirations.”

...“God does not discriminate against or judge or reward individuals,” she said in an interview. “We have a God emerging from all our good aspirations — the urge to love more, do more, be more. The best part of us is God.”

A God That Scientists And Philosophers Can Believe In

May the force be with us. The attachment to the idea of religion and God must be very strong for people to label almost any good quality they see as God.

Actually, I think an analysis is needed of the whole "the religion of X" phenomenon. We have the current thread "the religion of climate change," for example. It seems that anything that is strongly believed and asserted becomes a religion in someone's view. Or sometimes it can be whatever people spend most of their time on or are into, such as baseball. I'm just curious about the semantic and social factors. I wonder when this usage began and what it might say about attitudes toward religion. One possibility is that religion isn't taken as seriously as it once was, if almost anything can be called one.

The Church of the Latter Day Dude
Come join the slowest-growing religion in the world – Dudeism.
The idea is this: Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man. Stop worrying so much whether you’ll make it into the finals. Kick back with some friends and some oat soda and whether you roll strikes or gutters, do your best to be true to yourself and others – that is to say, abide.
http://dudeism.com/

I post this fascinating new religion mainly because I just found out a relative of mine was legally married by an Ordained Dudeist Priest!

youkrst;

Gotta love the dude!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jediism#C ... ecognition

In 2008, 23-year-old Daniel Jones founded the Church of Jediism with his brother Barney, believing that the 2001 UK census recognised Jediism as a religion, and that there were "more Jedi than Scientologists in Britain".[9] In 2009, Jones was removed from a Tesco supermarket in Bangor, North Wales, for refusing to remove his hood on a religious basis. The owner justified Jones's ejection by saying, "He hasn't been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side

I found a new one to add to the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6uVV2D ... r_embedded

Regards
DL