Help, please?

Question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060616093642AAlJL6f&r=w#NbUvWjC.WDhfOXHNs0wU Read this for the principles of my religion I made up. I'm the sixteenth answerer.

What should I call my religion? Would you -- or anybody -- go by it? Thanks. ^__^

Note: Please do not just think up something like "noodle" or "sh*t". Please, also, do not call it "Satan Worship" or say "God is the only way".

- 16 yo Pagan

=_= Noodlism... oh yeah... people would sure take that seriously... "Follow the way of the noodle!"

Another note: PLEASE no encouraging your own religious agenda, keep to the question I asked. PLEASE.

True. I'm working to earn it, though. I'm thinking about it, too.

Answerer 39, please refer to Principles 5, 5a, 9, and 10. Thank you.

Again, please, no preaching your religion or saying I should go that way. And to settle things, Jesus isn't my way to go, so, please, don't even hint at it in anyway. Thanks.

Answer 1

I am with you, hon. Your response to that question inspired me to answer my self. I think there is something new here.

It reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's pronouncement of "Festivus for the rest of us". I think that group is growing, but you know I think that it doesn't really need a name. Universalist and Unitarians are as close to it as an organized relgion can be, but it's the Organization that most of us want to stay away from isn't it?

I have been toying with the idea of Omians (like Om) or a United Ministry of Earth - and if you are interested, I can send you the url privately - but I don't know where to go with it. It is tempting to try to put us all together under the same umbrella and help us to feel our strength in numbers, even in an organization that says we all believe different things - but some of our beliefs are similar and that is where we need to focus. The strongest tenents are the golden rule and tolerance. I don't know - I feel close to a very interesting idea, and yet it is so elusive...lol

Peace!

Answer 2

Yeah...if you use "noodle" it sounds a bit like Spagetti Monsterism.

you know it pretty much it sounds like religious relativlism/humanism.

If you wanted it to make it a real religion, you're going to have to cut the "believe whatever you want" stuff and really decide on some dogma. people dont like ambiguity. thay why religions are so popular, not becaise its the "right" answer but because its "An" answer.

people like to pick on thing and stick wiht it reguardless of how it actually serves them.

also for it to be a real religon you're going to bee so figure out some way to make a profit off this...mabe a few lines about how you are the divine prophet and people need to cover your tab or something.

Beause honestly a religion isn't going to work unless it has funding.

Sound like you are a young idealist who recognized that practilcally are religions are the same and it'd be a whole lot better if we all just got past that and respected eachother's right to be differnt.

Eventually your paganism will lead to Atheism and you'll come to see that religion is a load of crap and that promoting an ideal, athoulh leess poular the religion is far more satisfying. keep it up... every rational person gets there sooner or later!

Answer 3

actually that was pretty good. i just dont like 12a, plants go to heaven.

i mean, u did a good job blending all the religions together, but the only problem is, it will fail miserably.
let me explain:
having a bunch of ppl worshipping different gods(ex.i worship jesus, u worship ganesh) would cause fighting and eventually one group will dominate the others, the others will be persectuted, and we will be back to where we started.

same thing for the pick 2 philosophers, it seriously is a good idea that would create tolerance, but people would decide 'these' teachings are correct and then either break off from the religion or change it so what they want is taught.

sry to be such a downer, but history repeats itself.

u could call ur religion:
megamism (ur name with ism added to it)

-edit-
even with rules 5,9, and 10 this would still happen.
killing isnt accepted in christianity yet there have been countless wars concerning christianity.
people will 'overlook' these rules and assume control, then when they gain it, they will either put it to use then, or just remove it.

once again sry to be such a downer.

Answer 4

This is between Taoism, Secular Humanism and Pantheism.

If you really want to pursue a development of this construct, I'd encourage you to look for a cohesiveness to the system. Right now it seems a little anarchic, only inasmuchas you have a raver's anthem (PLUR-peace love unity respect), Jungian psychology, and liberalist perspective fitting neatly within the tenets, among other things.

This seems more a credo than a religion. See if you can find a smaller core set of principles from which each moral arises, and name the religion after that principle.

Although I'd disagree with you personally (I'm a Christian in the Catholic tradition) I'm pleased to see that your followers would at least be peaceful and easy to get along with.

It'd be interesting if all of this caused you to find faith in Christ, wouldn't it?

Answer 5

I'm sure, as others have stated, that something very similar to your religion already exists and has a name. I did like what the one person wrote about needing funding and dogma.

I know you've not asked for advice, but I'd recommend that you forget starting your own religion, study history and philosophy, read "Stranger in a Strange Land" as well as "The Celestine Prophesy" and as diverse a set of "non-fiction" as you can find and keep your eyes open. Paganism has honorable roots and can be a great starting point. It seems like you are off to a great start in your dharma, especially for one so young. And if you haven't already, I think you'd really enjoy watching the film "What the Bleep Do We Know?" Best wishes.

Answer 6

I don't know what you should call it... why not let the followers name it themselves for however they'd like it to be called. I really liked this one : "Learn the teachings of Jesus, Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), Malcolm X, Confucius, Laozi, Plotinus, and Plato. Make sure to incorporate teachings of at least 2 of these people in your life." I see where you are coming from and going with on this one. It shows you are actually living that one, because of the other parts you put in.
I'd like to think I follow all that you wrote. It's a really great way to be. You are on a great path. And I wish you luck.
And I have a feeling you still are going to get the "god is the only way" answers, but chin up. You've allowed for that in your principles.

~ Scarlet

Answer 7

You seem to have taken the best attributes from several religions, as well as life itself. Nothing wrong with that. You also seem to be a good and gentle person, and again, how can that be wrong? At a personal level, I agree with most of what you propose. The major exception for me would be the polytheism. I'm a one God kind of guy. A name for your religion. Hmmmm. The Church of Gentle Souls, perhaps? Or more broadly, The Church of the Brotherhood of Man? The name would require some conversation, some reflection. I wish you well.

Answer 8

I've read a lot of your questions and answers; I read your description of what your religion would be like. I know you are 16, and you may not yet have had time to read much...I highly recommend you find an unabridged edition of Robert A. Heinlein's A Stranger In a Strange Land. Your religion already exists as The Church of All Worlds.

Answer 9

I'd suggest Spiritual Academia.

While it does seem like an amalgamation of most of the world's religions, isn't that really some people believe? It's not everyone who fits into a nice tidy label.

While I do share some of your tenets of your religion, I personally would find it hard to agree to all. So while I could not be a full Spiritual Academian, I'd have to say that I've journeyed along that path.

Answer 10

I would tweak it a bit and call it Catholic. It's very close. You used most of the ten commandments and a few beatitudes. Drop the karma thing and call it sin. Surely read other religious writings. But throw in some objective truth like Jesus Christ as the Son of God then you're on your way.

Then you mix it quite a bit of Gnosticism. The goal in life is learning. To hinder learning is your sin.

Then you get a bit illogical. You make comments that really suggest we can think or believe whatever we want. It seems to come from a skeptical point of view of truth. I don't think you believe there is an objective truth. So you find yourself on an infinite and beautiful circle. Round and round your logic goes. But your circular universe is cramped and imposes a slavery on people when you had meant to provide freedom. Under your religion we all become slaves to not being sure of anything. So we begin to trust in ourselves. But a person who trusts in themself and isn't sure of anything else is a person trapped in a box. They are limited by their limitlessness. Take Tolstoy or ole' Nietzche. Believed in themselves but nothing else. They didn't accomplish anything.

It is precisely because you place a circular limitless logic on people that they go nowhere but around and around. Like the symbol of the snake eatings its own tail. That should be your logo. It represents limitlessness. But it also shows a unique meal the snake and those under your religion find themselves.

Take the cross. they are two intersecting lines based on a paradox. It confuses the heck out of people makes a lot less sense and logic than your religion. To wrap your mind around Jesus as God and Man and Suffering brings Joy and Give Up Your Life to Have Life is the paradox of Christianity and the cross.

But unlike your religion where we must accept the strict logic of limitlessness and ultimately get nowhere, with the cross we just trust that the paradox is true and move on in any direction that the arms of the cross can take us. We give up one point of logic to make all other things clear. You make one point of logic very clear and end up making everything else a mystery. Nobody will know or be sure of anything by your standards.