What would be your religion?

[im_no_robot]

The other day I was asked by a friend this question: If you were to invent a religion, what would it look like

Comments

[liesoverthesea]

That's a great name for a church. I'm curious: would your religion have any sacrements, like fasting, reconciliation, confirmation, etc? From your description, the religion seems to be based in intellect-- acquiring knowledge and searching for meaning. Perhaps an introspective sacrement, like a meditation technique, could help followers apply what they learn to the way they live their lives.

If I were to design a religion, it would be directed toward the goal of helping people to live together peacefully and find fulfillment in their own lives. I don't know what form the religion would take, though. Maybe, like yours, it would encompass teachings from several existing religions.

[im_no_robot]

Yes, I think it would encompass meditation, prayer, fasting and other artifacts of religion inasmuch as they help one find the true meaning of it all. For some people these things don't work, but for some they do.

[spacial_k]

I'm a big fan of the all-encompassing theory of religion. I figure, when it comes right down to it, the big message that they all presume to teach their members is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I figure, if everyone in the world really and truly believed and practiced that one tenet, everything would be so much better than what we've got going now. I am also a big fan of the Oversoul theories of the transcendentalists, which is basically in line with The Force as shared with us by George Lucas. The idea that there isn't so much tangible God, but a connecting energy that binds us all together. Of course, it's hard to get the masses to gravitate toward something that is, by definition, vague and ethereal, but there you go.

[im_no_robot]

Funny you should mention the golden rule - I feel that there are certain people to whom religion mainly means "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and then there are others to whom religion means "be happy" (as a fictional example, take the Fosterites in Stranger in a Strange Land). Maybe the all encompassing religion must be something that somehow reconciles both of these polar extremes. Something like "live your life in balance with the world around you - be happy and be kind".

I think that's pretty much Taoism in a nutshell. Maybe that's the universal religion?