How would you go about creating a religion?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 7:44 pm
If you were to make up a religion, how would you go about it? What kind of things would you do and say to get converts to follow your religion?
Here are a couple that I thought of.
1. Claim that God had approached me and given me personal instruction to create this new religion.
2. Get some family and/or friends to vouch for me. Perhaps claim that God had visited them and told them to support me as leader of this new religion.
3. Look at the current problems of the day that a lot of people seem to be struggling with in regards to mainstream religion. Come up with some alternate ways of dealing with these problems.
4. When approaching potential converts, make sure to appeal to emotion. Have a fantastic story about the method that God had approached me with. Tell the potential convert that if they join my religion, in due time, God will visit them and declare the truth of it. "Visit" can be such a subjective term.
5. Have some religious artifacts that the members can pray to. Say, a simple piece of weathered wood that was personally given to me by God himself that is a remnant of the cross Jesus was crucified on. Or maybe an old, rusty nail that was one of the nails driven in Jesus hands. If you kneel before this and pray with faith, your prayers will be answered. I'm sure MANY would testify of the power of the wood/nail when their prayers were answered. It might help to make them dress up in symbolic, sacred clothing before praying to this.
6. Teach the followers that this is the only true church. That by even thinking about leaving this church, they put their entire family at risk of damnation.
7. Make sure to point out any persecution, be it perceived or real. Make sure they know that the enemies of the religion will stop at nothing to tear down God's one true church.
Any others?
Here are a couple that I thought of.
1. Claim that God had approached me and given me personal instruction to create this new religion.
2. Get some family and/or friends to vouch for me. Perhaps claim that God had visited them and told them to support me as leader of this new religion.
3. Look at the current problems of the day that a lot of people seem to be struggling with in regards to mainstream religion. Come up with some alternate ways of dealing with these problems.
4. When approaching potential converts, make sure to appeal to emotion. Have a fantastic story about the method that God had approached me with. Tell the potential convert that if they join my religion, in due time, God will visit them and declare the truth of it. "Visit" can be such a subjective term.
5. Have some religious artifacts that the members can pray to. Say, a simple piece of weathered wood that was personally given to me by God himself that is a remnant of the cross Jesus was crucified on. Or maybe an old, rusty nail that was one of the nails driven in Jesus hands. If you kneel before this and pray with faith, your prayers will be answered. I'm sure MANY would testify of the power of the wood/nail when their prayers were answered. It might help to make them dress up in symbolic, sacred clothing before praying to this.
6. Teach the followers that this is the only true church. That by even thinking about leaving this church, they put their entire family at risk of damnation.
7. Make sure to point out any persecution, be it perceived or real. Make sure they know that the enemies of the religion will stop at nothing to tear down God's one true church.
Any others?