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I think we are all cognizant of the fact that new religions were forming at a rapid rate when America was exercising its freedom of religion rights. Mormonism was one of them. We still have that freedom….so, are you familiar with any emerging religions in our modern times? By modern, I mean within the last 10 years?
Scientology is the newest notable religion that I can think of, and I believe that it’s at least 50 years old now. I am only half joking, but how about football, online gaming, and the like? Metaphysics is coming out of the woodwork. To go along with it is Unity, Universalism. Anything that deals with the mind and mystical topics. Mormonism is a highly metaphysical religion involving mysticism. It’s slighted a bit. Journey wrote:To go along with it is Unity, Universalist.
I think universalism is making a huge comeback right now. Not sure it’s a “new” religion, as Joseph Smith Senior was a Universalists, and to a lesser extent, JS — at least according to Richard Bushman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong A very notable example, and highly persecuted by the Chinese state. Founded 1992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Pantheism Founded 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Philip_Movement The Prince Philip Movement (not a joke).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Teachings_of_the_Masters founded 1983
Not sure if Universalism counts, because it is a pretty old idea.
Pentecostalism has come on leaps and bounds within the past twenty years, but is in the same position. It’s actually quite mainstream now.
Rastafarianism, same thing, dates to the 1930s, exploded into global consciousness with reggae.
The big religious explosion was in the 1960s and 70s of course.
As Amertune notes, even Scientology is old.
Some people count Amway and certain socialist organizations as religious too.
I think secularism or humanism will eventually outpace them all. They tend to have the most specific answers to nature and the history of the universe. SilentDawning wrote:I think we are all cognizant of the fact that new religions were forming at a rapid rate when America was exercising its freedom of religion rights. Mormonism was one of them…We still have that freedom….so, are you familiar with any emerging religions in our modern times? By modern, I mean within the last 10 years?
I don’t know of any noteworthy new religions and if there are I doubt they will be able to compete that well with most of the religions that are already established. It seems like it has been easier for relatively new evangelical churches to gain a large number of followers fairly quickly than it probably would be for any completely new religion that is significantly different from mainstream Christianity. Another trend we are starting to see is more personalized spirituality that isn’t tied to any organized religion with some of the New Age ideas and an increasing number of people that believe in God but don’t ever go to church.
Personally, I think Joseph Smith founded the Church about the only time he could have with quite so much success. Too many years before that there wasn’t as much religious freedom because many political rulers basically wanted everyone to belong to the same church/religion to try to promote national unity and too long after that people would have typically been more skeptical about some of these claims than many of them were in 1830-1844. Sure the Church has had converts throughout its history but I suspect that many members that never would have been converted from other beliefs on their own have stayed in the Church mostly because they grew up with this tradition and had social ties with other members.
cwald wrote:Journey wrote:I think universalism is making a huge comeback right now. Not sure it’s a “new” religion, as Joseph Smith Senior was a Universalists, and to a lesser extent, JS — at least according to Richard Bushman.
Yup.. I understand what you’re saying. Not new. I believe it’s always been under one name or another. Gnostics to some degree.
Discordianism. Maybe not so new. Cadence wrote:I think secularism or humanism will eventually outpace them all. They tend to have the most specific answers to nature and the history of the universe.
I’m not seeing it. Despite Dawkins etc it’s not happening. People are dropping traditional organized religion, but flocking to various bits of the New Age, superstition (by which I mean little things, not religion BTW), ghosts/seances/ouija boards, NDEs, “angels”, religious meditation etc.
Plus the other thing is that the secular parts of the world use so much contraception and abortion, they’re simply being outbred.
SamBee wrote:Cadence wrote:I think secularism or humanism will eventually outpace them all. They tend to have the most specific answers to nature and the history of the universe.
I’m not seeing it. Despite Dawkins etc it’s not happening. People are dropping traditional organized religion, but flocking to various bits of the New Age, superstition (by which I mean little things, not religion BTW), ghosts/seances/ouija boards, NDEs, “angels”, religious meditation etc.
Plus the other thing is that the secular parts of the world use so much contraception and abortion, they’re simply being outbred.
I guess in 1000 years we will see who wins the day.
In the numbers game, it’s NOT the secularists. Remember only a tiny percentage of the world’s population is secularized. It’s not even the majority of the people in the USA. The USA is legally secular, but not in practice. Even in Communist China, despite violent oppression, religion persists, as it did in the USSR.
The West (which isn’t completely secularized) is a tiny fraction of the world’s population too. Most people in the world do not have televisions, telephones or car.
observant wrote:Discordianism. Maybe not so new.
Hail Eris! The rules are for fools. All hail Discordia!
One of my favorite topics.
😆 Brian Johnston wrote:observant wrote:Discordianism. Maybe not so new.
Hail Eris! The rules are for fools. All hail Discordia!
One of my favorite topics.
😆 I’m glad you can appreciate it but I don’t get it.
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