Religion wish list

[AthenaRose]

I'm planning on taking part in National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo) again this year. The story I have in mind will feature a religion (or possibly more than one, but with one being dominant), and I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into developing it.

Anyway, my question is, if you had to create a religion from scratch, what would you include? Please feel free to be as radical or as cliched as you like - all I'm after are ideas at this stage.

Thanks in anticipation!

[The Anti-crest]

Lots of symbols that are really violent but are treated as signs of love.

A martyr.

Lots and Lots of pointless (and sometimes crazy) rituals.

A very big book.

[Buckyrig]

Basic stuff. Consider what questions were utterly unanswered in the society where the religion developed when it developed and attempt to address those mysteries. It is probably best to anthropomorphize any deities. It's probably also a good idea to research Perennial Philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy) a bit and keep it in mind as you create your religion. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to look anything up beyond Wikipedia. :har: )

[AthenaRose]

Good start! Thanks.

[Knuckles]

Basic stuff. Consider what questions were utterly unanswered in the society where the religion developed when it developed and attempt to address those mysteries. It is probably best to anthropomorphize any deities. It's probably also a good idea to research Perennial Philosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy) a bit and keep it in mind as you create your religion. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to look anything up beyond Wikipedia. :har: )

Those are all good points. I would consider how old you want the religion to be. Did it spring out of some ancient rtiuals? Was it a religion that opposed the dominant religion when it started? How much will they influence the believers and non-believers? I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with. Maybe your religion will be a new-age one! :eek:

[The Anti-crest]

If you have time to read...

http://www.biblegateway.com/

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/

http://meaningoflife.tv/ <--videos

http://www.pantheon.org/

I used to have the Gita on my favorites but cant find it right now, I guess i deleted it.

[JonHParrish]

I would have to say there should either be a deity or a prophet as the head of the religion or regarded as such.

[The Anti-crest]

Oh and Punishment vs Reward is key.

[Icaruss]

You should tie your religion with war, closely. Everybody's doing it.

[Scribe]

How you create your religion depends greatly on how you view your own faith and what you want to accomplish in a story. If you want to satirize religion you might want to make some elaborate ceremony that you have to go through if you have a wet dream (Check out the real ones in Leviticus 15:16) or if you want your story to be about people acting on deeply held beliefs build your religion so that everything has meaning and ceremony is used to help people through life's issues.

Personally I have problems with creating fictional religions for my fantasy world. So I think you have to decide what you're happy with while not doing anything you consider blasphemous.

[The Anti-crest]

How you create your religion depends greatly on how you view your own faith and what you want to accomplish in a story. If you want to satirize religion you might want to make some elaborate ceremony that you have to go through if you have a wet dream (Check out the real ones in Leviticus 15:16) or if you want your story to be about people acting on deeply held beliefs build your religion so that everything has meaning and ceremony is used to help people through life's issues.

Personally I have problems with creating fictional religions for my fantasy world. So I think you have to decide what you're happy with while not doing anything you consider blasphemous.

You mean take a bath? that isnt that weird. If I jizzed all over my leg I'd want to take a bath.

[Scribe]

You mean take a bath? that isnt that weird. If I jizzed all over my leg I'd want to take a bath.

Well that and the whole women having to leave the villiage for seven days each month.

[The Anti-crest]

Well that and the whole women having to leave the villiage for seven days each month.

You may want to recheck your scripture.

16 'If a man's seed comes from his sex part, he must wash his whole body in water. And he will be unclean until evening.

I didnt check the whole verse since you said 15:16, but Lev is nothing but pointless rule listing. Women having to leave for seven days is probably their punishment for their periods.

[Buckyrig]

Well that and the whole women having to leave the villiage for seven days each month.

This was probably to prevent uxoricides. :whistlin:







I'm gonna die, someone hide me. :cry:

[AthenaRose]

What I have in mind at the moment is something resembling Roman Catholicism at its worst, but I understand that this actually says more about my personal prejudices than anything else! That's partly why I asked for help/advice, to get a broader perspective. I think I have a pretty good knowledge of historical and modern religions, so I have plenty of stuff to draw on, but I thought it would be interesting to see where other people would start.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice. The websites are particularly helpful.

[BEN DENNIS]

Engaging in combat inside a 15 foot steel cage!!! The loser gets rolled in broken glass, while the winner basks in salvation.
Salvaton, however, must be defended every 30 days, lest it be stripped from the winner and put up for grabs in a one night tournement.
If the winner should die before the 30 days have expired, the salvation becomes his for eternity and the number 1 and number 2 contenders do battle for the next slavation granted by the Grand Salvation Committee.
I'll call this "SCL", the Salvation Combat League". :p

[D.C. Lee]

Naturally there should be different sects of the religon. Some believe in the basics while others go that "extra mile" to uphold the beliefs of their people. Then there could be the "casual ones" who know their connected to the religon but just try to live their lives and don't feel they have to prove thier faith every friggin' day through meaningless babble and jewelry that is supposed to "protect" them. There could actually be gangs that roam the streets defending the beliefs and trying to change the old ways.

[kshah777]

I'm having this same problem... coming up with a religion is difficult without ripping off at least a few ideas from a real one. Which is mainly what I ended up doing anyway... sort of a blend of Taoism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism (gotta have that good vs. evil!). But that's just me... I'd take what you like and mesh em up to see what you get.

[AthenaRose]

Ben - I could use that idea, but not in this story. Thanks, anyway!

DC - layers of belief, and the demonstration of 'true' belief, are kind of what trigger the story off. Oh, and who believes what.

kshah777 - there are so many religions in our own world, each with their own nuances and sects, that it would be virtually impossible (and also like trying to reinvent the wheel) to ignore them completely.

[chrisjohnwagner]

I am not sure but is this supposed to be an established or the beginning of a new fictional religon? A lot of major religons were quite radical and progressive in their thinking in during their infancy. The funny hats and such came as the years passed by