If , as Karl Marxsuggested , organized religion is the " opium of the hoi polloi , " we subsist on a satellite where nobody need to take the air too far down the street to get drug . Each year , hundreds of new religious movements are born ; they ’re all over the position if you know where to look . Never mind that only a petite fraction of them will survive — there ’s more where they came from .
So , who starts new religion and why ?
Spiritual Startups
embark on a newreligionis actually a set like rolling out a new societal media app : Hundreds of these thing come along out of lean air every twelvemonth , created by go - getters with some entrepreneurial flavor , egocentrism , creativity , ambitiousness and flair for presenting an idea . But dumb destiny and good timing bet a part , too — sometimes an theme come along that verbalise to citizenry ’s need and concerns at a particular moment in history . When this bechance , some buzz is bring forth , people get peculiar , and maybe ( just perchance ) , the whole matter blows up . And we end up with Snapchat orScientology .
spiritual scholarly person forefend the countersign " cult " when line Modern spiritual movements since the term is so laden with value judgment , but every new religious sect or unearthly trend essentially begins the same direction : as acult .
" The big joke in religion is thatCult + Time = Religion , " saysReza Aslan , a religious scholar and author of bestselling Word of God about the commencement of bothIslamandChristianity . " Christianity was a craze for hundreds of years before it became the official religion of the Roman Empire . To this Clarence Day , there are Americans who call Mormonism a cult , in spite of the fact that it ’s one of the most thriving religion in the world . "
Truth is , at some point most of the globe ’s great religious belief were what most people would call " cultus , " go by kip like Jesus or Muhammad or Buddha . But according to Lorne Dawson , a prof in theDepartment of Religious Studiesat the University of Waterloo and author of " Comprehending Cults : The Sociology of New Religious Movements , " while many of these motivational leaders have the cause to set out a new ghostly group , valued few have the wherewithal to manage it through the awkward early stages without mismanage finances , alienate their follower or otherwise allow their egos get the good of them .
" Cults have a bad repute because corruption is jolly vulgar within these chemical group , " order Dawson . " But in many cases , these charismatic leaders are really trying to help hoi polloi . Research shows , in many of these new religious motion , the great unwashed [ adherent ] are successfully overcoming drug or alcohol habituation , family problem , etc . , because the religions really do supply young stabilizing influences in their lives . "
The World’s Newest Religions
There are so , so many religions out there . There are century of offshoots of Tibetan Buddhism , different class of Mormonism , UFO faith and unnumbered reconceived feeling of every form of Christianity you’re able to think of . One Christian sect might keep up a preacher who believes in polyoicous marriage while another might have very specific rules on how to baptize somebody . You name it , it ’s usable .
According to Dawson , authentic estimation put the number of officially recognized religions currently operating in the United States at around 2,500 . The U.S. is avery religious society , compared to Europe or Canada , which each presently has only a few 12 new religions . Africa also seems to be a hotbed of new religiousism :
" Africa was the last place to be penetrated by European religion — primarily by Islam and Christianity , " says Dawson . " There have been load of conversions away from aboriginal praxis , just in the last 100 geezerhood . As so often happens , when citizenry convert , they usually merge their animistic impression with some elements of Catholicism . In the case of Africa , this has been in the midst of economic upheaval , new disease and a lot of commotion . It ’s right for Modern prophesier to show up and say , ' I ’ve make the newfangled truth , we ’re all going to be OK . ' "
This is not to say these new faith are all right with the establishment , though . One back - to - the - farming spiritual movement on the island of Borneo calledMilah Abrahamwas in the news in 2017 because its leader , Ahmad Mushaddeq , was lag for sacrilege in Indonesia for claiming to be the actual Word of God . Mushaddeq has over 50,000 follower , and the Indonesian regime is n’t happy about it — the country recognizes six different faith , but Milah Abraham is n’t one of them .
Stricter New Religions Succeed … Sort Of
If a new ghostly effort make it out of the cumbersome beginning stages , if enough people are attached to give their money and time to the reason , it needs to develop institutionalised command . A rigid pecking order and clearcut guidelines about the difference between correct and wrong belief run to attract dependable believers and keep out the freeloader — people who take advantage of the essentialdo - gooder - ish - nessof a religion without being invested in helping it come through .
The Church of Scientology is a good example of a raw , very successful religion that did a great line in its mid - century beginnings of laying down some clearcut guidelines for the levels of commitment expect of its truster . In getting even , Scientology anticipate a new , powerful identity , a better eccentric of salvation than anyone else was offering , as well as prosperity and luck . But as the faith has grown , something new and 100 percent wait happened : the followers of Scientology have begun to require to define the faith for themselves .
" For the first metre , Scientology is having to confront religious sect — Scientologists breaking off from the church but not the religion , " Aslan says . " They ’re seize for themselves the tycoon to fix Scientology for themselves . The church says they are n’t allow to do this , but that ’s the same argument every spiritual institution make . That ’s what the Vatican said when Luther nailed his Theses to the church room access : ' Only we can delineate what is and is n’t Christian . ' "
And we know who won that argument .
So , although strict religions are broadly speaking more successful , the five neat world faith — Christianity , Judaism , Islam , Buddhism , Hinduism — all have one thing in coarse : They have made themselves unattackable enough to survive continual dissension over orthodoxy and evolve with the changing needs of their communities .
" In the U.S. , both slave owner and abolitionists used not only the same Bible to justify their argument , they used the exact same verses . When that ’s the kind of Bible that you have , you do it it ’s going to last , " Aslan says .
